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BRAIN CULTURE THROUGH 
SCIENTIFIC BODY 
BUILDING 




♦ 




















dLtT* 


le 



1 


Brain Culture Through 
Scientific Body Building 


By 


MRS. THEODORE PARSONS 


With Preface by 
DOCTOR EFFIE L. LOBDELL 
President of Medical Women’s Club of Chicago 


With Eighteen Illustrations From Photographs 
By Matzene 


1912 


THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF MENTAL AND 
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT 

FINE ARTS BUILDING. CHICAGO 


Copyright, 1912 

By 

THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF MENTAL AND 
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT 



©CU3283D? 


Stratum 


T To the Parents and Teachers of this country, who 
are moulding the present and future generations, this 
book is tenderly dedicated by the Author. 


“See that through thee the race 
progresses, not continues only ." 


—NEITZSCHE 


PREFACE 


The worldwide present movement for the scien¬ 
tific preservation of life and health has awakened a 
great interest in the scientific training of the Body. 
The care of the health is the first duty of both home 
and school. Questions of food, exercise and air are 
fundamental. There is need of great reform and 
widespread public attention on many problems of 
the physical life of the child. 

The duty of parents toward their children does 
not end with giving them birth and sustenance. 
They must use every means of bringing them to 
healthy and complete maturity. Parents should be 
taught how to do this, for upon it depends, more than 
upon anything else, the future of the race. Parent, 
teacher and physician must co-operate to keep the 
child normal, strong and healthy. 

One of the best means of preserving and increasing 
the health of child and youth is carefully regulated 
muscle culture. Children are by nature full of 
motor impulses. We are coming to understand that 
activity is the keynote of life. The New Education 
must be at bottom activity, involving muscle and 
will, if it is to prepare for life. It is far better to 
train a child so that by activity he adds ever so 
little to the values in the world, than that he should 


store up an exhaustive amount of unexpressed 
knowledge. Establish good muscle habits in child¬ 
hood, for they are fundamental in the education of 
the will and the emotions. 

Considered from the genetic point of view, most 
of the old-time physical training seems narrow and 
inadequate. There is great latent talent that in our 
present methods never comes to expression, and the 
study of which may do far more for the body and 
mind than we yet perceive. 

From this standpoint we can say in the most 
general terms that the purpose of the artistic train¬ 
ing of the Body in its broadest sense is to restore the 
motor elements of expression to their rightful place 
in mental and physical education; and rightly con¬ 
ceived, it may be called a liberal humanistic culture 
of the emotions through motion. Such training 
serves a great purpose, for it helps to develop and to 
balance the emotions by directly exercising the or¬ 
gans of control and expression, teaching Expression 
in Movement. This line of education is being car¬ 
ried forward by a few well known teachers, pioneers 
in this great new field. 

One of these teachers, Mrs. Theodore Parsons, 
has made this subject a life study, and has given us. 
a system of Physical Education complete in its 
systematic wholeness and practical application, for 
the training of the body, from the scientific and 
artistic standpoint; the result is a unique method of 
Expressional training. 


Mrs. Parsons brings to the preparation of her 
work fifteen years of active teaching, and her de¬ 
votion and sincerity are reflected in her enthusiasm; 
also she is a finished illustrator of her Art. The 
beautiful Posture Pictures show her results, and her 
enthusiasm is justified. Like all enthusiasts (and 
all good teachers must believe in themselves), she 
attempts to dip into my world, and yours perhaps, 
but if she can lift the individual out of the physical 
rut, kindle a sense of physical beauty of form, and 
stimulate a desire for greater and higher physical 
efficiency, we shall be the last to object, and many 
whom we all know, in looking for Beauty have found 
Health, Love and Happiness. The perfecting of the 
quality of the human machine, so that its output 
may be of the finest and highest type, is one of the 
greatest needs of our day. 

Those who cannot directly come under Mrs. 
Parsons’ influence can at least get the wonderful 
inspiration of her method through this book, and 
begin at once to seek within its pages what all desire 
so much, the attainment of the fullest of physical 
and aesthetic development. 

What wonders can be accomplished is seen in our 
own day, by the incomparable Sarah Bernhardt, 
who tells of herself that she was such a grotesquely 
ugly child her mother used to apologize when people 
observed her; the mother’s friends used to commiser¬ 
ate ’with her openly, and it was hearing remarks of 
this character made in her presence, in which the 


mother sighing said, “I don’t know what will ever 
become of her,” that the child Sarah clenched her 
hands and said to herself, “I will show them. I 
will force people to bow to me. ’ ’ She has made every 
muscle alive with expression, compelling our at¬ 
tention. She is Energy vitalized, and Culture sym¬ 
bolized, and her spirit is no less compelling than her 
physical expression. She is Culture, Art and Soul 
embodied. 

There is little else to say in a preface except the 
above testimony, and to add that here is a method 
of physical education which the evolutionary view 
asserts to be fundamental and normal, and to this I 
very gladly bear witness. 

Effie L. Lobdell, M. D. 

President of Medical Women's Club of Chicago . 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Physical Education as a Science 25 

II. Exercises for Stimulating Brain 

Centres.47 

III. Opening up the Main Road to the 

Brain.67 

IV. The Crying Evil of College 

Athletics. 91 

V. Developing the Will Through 
Movements for Muscular 
Control.121 

VI. Cultivation of the Will . . . 147 

VII. Simple Exercises for the Home, 

Office or Schoolroom . . . 181 

VIII. Special Exercises for the Various 

Muscle Groups.205 

IX. Posture Exercises Including 

Specific Movements for Obesity 227 

X. Long Life as a Result of Brain 

Work .267 

XI. Conclusion. 291 














INTRODUCTION 


Today an urgent need imposes itself 
upon society; the reconstruction and reval¬ 
uation of methods in education and instruc¬ 
tion. This important reformation should 
begin in the Physical Education of our 
children, and they who labor for this cause 
labor for human regeneration. 

During the past few years noted educa¬ 
tors have urged a thorough revision of the 
methods of physical training in our schools; 
the great necessity then is to convert these 
opinions into social action and originate leg¬ 
islation to compel the educative agencies of 
this country to abolish outworn and inju¬ 
rious systems of physical training. 

There have been many able scientific 
works given to the public on physiology and 
psychology, but none of them have com¬ 
bined a discussion or indicated the possibil¬ 
ities of the broad principles belonging to 


physiology and psychology, in their practical 
bearing on manhood and womanhood. Only 
in recent years has the great importance of 
considering the psychological aspect of play, 
gymnastics and physical training been recog¬ 
nized; in fact, there is almost no literature 
upon the subject. 

The author is at present under the neces¬ 
sity of confining herself to a presentation of 
an outline of her method of expressional 
training, owing to the demand of her pupils 
in the various schools, seminaries and col¬ 
leges, where she has directed the physical 
and dramatic work. With the subject thus 
narrowed to the fundamentals of Scientific 
Body Building, the author considers this 
monograph as an introduction to a far more 
comprehensive work, the aim and extent of 
which it only indicates. 

From the school, until recent years, we 
have had only the one-sided mental training 
which Physicians are beginning to under¬ 
stand is the first great cause of the wide¬ 
spread nervous diseases of today. One of 
the promising signs upon the educational 
horizon is the scientific training of the body. 


The crowning achievement of this century 
will be the prevention of disease, and the 
vital work for medicine today is to see just 
how much can be done to change inherited 
defective nature, to alter inherited defective 
structure. 

It is one of the triumphs of modern 
science that it has succeeded in clearing 
away the ancient idea that mental disorders 
belong to a totally different class from or¬ 
dinary bodily ills, and many years of obser¬ 
vation of mental and nervous disorders have 
proved to the author’s satisfaction that 
nearly all abnormal mental manifestations 
are the result of a deranged body. 

Our systems of education are imperfect 
so long as they fail to inspire the youth of 
this country with the sacred ambition for 
physical perfection, and help him to the 
method of expressing himself in the noblest 
form which he may be capable of attaining. 
Every child should feel that he is the builder 
of a Temple called his body. We are all 
sculptors in the daily carving out from the 
material of flesh, blood, and bones, a living, 
breathing statue, far more beautiful than 


any designed by the ancient Greeks. 

Scientific Body Building, rather than the 
training of gymnasts and athletes, is the aim 
of this work, not bulging muscles or phe¬ 
nomenal skill in some specialty, but sound 
health, grace and endurance. The anti¬ 
quated methods now in use should be done 
away with, as Science has proven that the 
overdevelopment of the muscles in arms, 
chest and legs is now looked upon as a 
calamity, for they really tend to shorten 
life unless the vital organs are proportion¬ 
ately developed to take care of them. 

During the last fifteen years the author 
has carried on a series of experiments with 
reference to a deliberate application of 
specific physical exercises, to the improve¬ 
ment of the forms and functions of the 
human body, and finds that by cultivation 
of the muscular system incipient deformi¬ 
ties not only may be arrested, but consid¬ 
erable malformations may be overcome, and 
that shrunken, deformed and twisted bodies 
may be built up into lines of symmetrical 
beauty. , 

In education, the true chronological order 


is the body first, and the brain after, for the 
body needs education as well as the brain. 
Education in its highest sense should be the 
conscious training of mind and body to act 
unconsciously. 

The exercises in this method of expres- 
sional training are based upon the princi¬ 
ples of muscle culture. It is not merely 
that physical training keeps the body in 
good trim, but the very growth of the brain 
depends upon the growth and use of the 
muscular system. If the human being is 
not to retrograde, he must keep fundamental 
and accessory muscles, up to their perfect 
and symmetrical development, for scientific 
training of the body is a true brain stimulant. 

The author believes that nine-tenths of 
the diseases from which school children suf¬ 
fer are caused by an insufficient amount of 
exercise. 

G. Stanley Hall says that gymnastics 
with apparatus is distinctly anti-physiolog- 
ical, and the author has found that many of 
the exercises in schools and colleges may 
prove quite harmful. Children suffering 
from spinal trouble or hip difficulty are 


likely to be injured from exercises unless 
they are definitely prescribed by a trained 
specialist, for there are always abnormal con¬ 
ditions present which must be specifically 
treated. Certain deformities of the figure 
may be due even to deficiency of exercise, to 
the excessive immobility of the individual. 
If we are to have regularity of form and 
beautiful bodies, we must adopt exercises 
in which all parts of the body regularly per¬ 
form work in proportion to the strength of 
their muscles. 

Only a few years have elapsed since the 
work of noted scientists has revealed to us 
the possibilities of the New Education. 
Patient effort and scientific experiment have 
produced astounding results in building up 
the brains of feeble-minded children; and in 
applying some of the experiments to chil¬ 
dren of average intelligence, they have pro¬ 
gressed rapidly, both physically and men¬ 
tally. 

The fundamental error in much that 
passes for good education is in providing too 
much surface and too little depth. In the 
effort to improve our schools, the mistake 


has been made of increasing the curriculum 
instead of the teaching force. The first busi¬ 
ness of education is to make sound physical 
and moral fibre, and human fibre of any 
kind is built only by constant and judicious 
exercise. Therefore, common sense would 
dictate that where there is any physical 
weakness, the less strong part of the body 
should be so trained and developed as to 
equal strength with the rest. This method 
has been designed to train Expression, 
Strength and Endurance in the body, and 
the author believes that one of the broadest 
avenues to Ethics and Esthetics is through 
the artistic training of the body, whose 
possibilities as a culture study are almost 
wholly undeveloped. 

The supreme aim of Education should be 
to foster sound and capable bodies, to devel¬ 
op well-trained minds, to build up strong, 
self-reliant characters. Wherever there is a 
child born with physical infirmities, there is 
a mental and physical cause back of it, and 
for every broken mind there is some one to 
blame, somewhere in the past. Parents who 
are coarsening with luxuries, do not stop to 


think that they are sending down that blood 
to future offspring, that will reflect it in the 
mental and nervous distortions of the future 
generations that will succeed them, and that 
inevitably bear the greater penalty. In¬ 
sanity (in which may be classed all nervous 
distortions and perversions) is never with¬ 
out blame from some source. Luxury of 
diet, of living, of habits, and a long contin¬ 
ued abuse of the wholesome laws of life, will 
weaken the mental and physical faculties 
more in the generation that follows than in 
that which is guilty. 

Let us look for a minute at the career 
of one of the greatest poets of the nine¬ 
teenth century. Oscar Wilde’s life at 
Oxford University was one that occasioned 
great admiration from students and fac¬ 
ulty. It was marked by chastity and 
great devotion to his studies. A few 
years later, the decadent atmosphere of 
the drawing-rooms of London and Paris 
drugged his moral sense, and Oscar Wilde 
paid in his innocent person the toll that 
nature exacted for the centuries of convivi¬ 
ality of rollicking ancestors, and the irony 


of the gods sentenced him to the silence of 
the tomb, in the two most fruitful years of 
his life, when his genius had reached its 
apogee. He to whom expression was life, 
nay, more than life itself, was suddenly re¬ 
duced to silence more silent than the grave, 
and he who had made a name glorious in 
literature, had only a number in a cell. 
His was worse than suffering, his was a 
tragedy, and one of the greatest tragedies 
of the nineteenth century. 

If ancestry is to blame, then let us protect 
future generations and make of Heredity 
the prime factor of a constructive future for 
the race. The concept of a regenerated 
humanity, as the goal of human progress, 
immediately lays the foundation of a scien¬ 
tific revaluation of all the instruments of 
education. Let us begin then with the body 
which is the foundation. Individually, and 
in a very few cases, it may be true that noble 
minds accompany diseased bodies, but the 
rule is obviously the reverse. 

“I see a race without disease of flesh or 
brain, shapely and fair, married harmony of 
form and function, and as I look life length- 


ens, joy deepens, love canopies the earth, 
and over all in the great dome shines the 
eternal star of human hope.” 


PHYSICAL EDUCATION AS A 

SCIENCE 














CHAPTER I 


Physical Education as a Science 

Physical Education as a Science has only 
recently been born. The new science of 
Scientific Body Building is based upon the 
recent and remarkable discoveries in phys¬ 
iological science, especially that of brain 
localization. One of the first results of 
these discoveries is to impart an entirely 
new aspect to the important subject of 
Physical Education. 

We must face the fact that the ultimate 
verdict concerning the utility of the School 
will be determined by its moral efficiency in 
saving children from personal vice and 
crime. A brief historical review of modern 
discoveries in brain localization,—the physi¬ 
cal relations of brain to the mind, and of the 
correlations of brain cells and muscle cells 
would seem to be a fitting introduction to 
this course on physical education. 


26 


Brain Culture Through 


Now that we know how soul and body to¬ 
gether build up or undermine each other, 
people are beginning to demand a higher, 
a more scientific physical education in 
relation to the holiness and rights of the 
body. Modern scientific research has re¬ 
vealed certain material seats of purely 
mental function. The most important, and 
of the first to be discovered, was the specific 
anatomical seat of speech. 

On April 14th, 1861, an eminent French 
hospital surgeon, Paul Broca, read a paper 
before the Societe d’ Anthropologie of Paris 
in which he adduced evidences to prove: 

That there is a definite locality in the 
brain which is the sole seat of articulate 
speech, found in a limited area in the lower 
and posterior part of the convolution, called 
the third frontal and which is now named 
“Broca’s convolution.” This tiny patch of 
gray matter is situated a little in front of 
the tip of the ear. This speech center, 
curiously enough, in the great majority of 
persons, lies upon the left side of the brain, 


Scientific Body Building 


27 


and is the only one-sided center in the body. 
This discovery is one of far-reaching sig¬ 
nificance in regard to the problem of ambi¬ 
dexterity, that the anatomical seats of the 
faculty of speech are found only in one of 
the hemispheres. 

The facts which led to the discovery were 
cases of sudden paralysis, suddenly occur¬ 
ring on one side of the body. If it happened 
to be the right side which was paralyzed, the 
side which is governed by the left brain 
motor or uttering speech is also very com¬ 
monly affected. The reason for this is that 
Broca’s convolution, which contains the 
center for motor speech, is situated in that 
part of the cortex which is called the motor 
area, because from that area proceed those 
excitations of muscular movements which 
are of a voluntary kind. 

A powerful spurt of blood from a ruptured 
cerebral artery may so tear the brain tis¬ 
sue as to involve these motor centers or the 
fibres leading from them, and so destroy the 
Broca convolution. Postmortem exami- 


28 


Brain Culture Through 


nations fully confirm this statement; mean¬ 
time, as the right hemisphere is then found 
to be quite unaffected including the right 
Broca’s convolution, it is very plain that 
the loss of speech is due exclusively to the 
injury to the left hemisphere. 

On the other hand, while loss of speech 
ordinarily accompanies right-sided but not 
left-sided paralysis, some cases have been 
reported in which it accompanied left-sided 
and not right-sided paralysis. These cases 
were published along with the significant 
postmortem findings of damage to the right 
instead of the left Broca’s convolution. In 
other instances, in patients who with left¬ 
sided paralysis, and loss of motor speech, 
had also shown word blindness during life, 
not only the right Broca’s convolution, but 
the region of the right angular gyrus was 
likewise found damaged. As the corre¬ 
sponding places in the left hemisphere were 
intact, it followed that in these persons the 
speech centers were in the right brain and 
not in the left. But it was not long before 


Scientific Body Building 


29 


this seemingly curious anomaly found its 
explanation, which is, that right-sided par¬ 
alysis, with loss of speech, occurs in right- 
handed people, and left-sided paralysis, 
with loss of speech, occurs in persons who 
have been left-handed in life. In other 
words, the faculty of speech is located in the 
hemisphere which governs the hand that is 
most used. 

Hand and speech, therefore, are physio¬ 
logically connected. This remarkable fact 
brings us back to the origin, to the very be¬ 
ginning of this wonderful faculty of Expres¬ 
sion in the human race. It began by one 
personality longing to communicate with 
others, and the first thing which it did then, 
as every human being still does when en¬ 
deavoring to communicate with those whose 
vocal speech he does not know, was to make 
gestures with his hands. 

Gesture language, therefore, was the first 
language, and few persons are aware how 
much gesture language still continues in 
living use. We all know the significance of 


30 


Brain Culture Through 


the hand in human history. It was by 
virtue of the hand that we gained lordship 
over the earth. It was the hand, wonderful 
mechanism, evolving out of the directing 
will an ever increasing subtlety and power, 
that made possible the human brain. It 
is not necessary in a book of this kind to 
give a detailed indication of the specific 
relations of the main brain centers. We 
know now that each of the special senses 
has its anatomical seat in the brain, and in 
addition to that, in a centrally placed zone, 
are to be found the seats governing the 
voluntary muscles of the body. 

The relations of mind and body are so 
intimate, that the building up of one is in¬ 
dispensable to the building up of the other. 
One of the most important results of scien¬ 
tific body building, is the fact that certain 
portions of the brain, which preside over 
voluntary movements are developed by 
muscular exercise, just as certain other parts 
of this organ, concerned in intellectual oper¬ 
ations may be developed by mental work. 


Scientific Body Building 


31 


The nervous working which goes on in the 
gray matter of the brain, for the purpose of 
throwing a muscle into action, must in¬ 
fluence the nutrition of that portion of the 
brain, just as much as contraction influences 
the nutrition of the muscles. 

It was a fortunate step for psychologists, 
when they turned away from metaphysical 
abstractions and gave their attention to the 
study of the nervous system. One familiar 
with the history of modern psychology, 
knows that it was by clinical observations, 
by autopsies, and by experiments on ani¬ 
mals, that Gall (1806), Flourens (1820), and 
Foville (1840), proved that the psychologi¬ 
cal processes are correlated to physiological 
processes, in the cortex of the brain. He 
knows that it was in the same way that 
among others, Bouilland (1850), Broca 
(1860), Fritsch and Hitzig (1870), proved 
that the whole cortex is not of the same sig¬ 
nificance, but that certain psychological 
processes are attached only to physiological 
in certain parts of the cortex. 


32 


Brain Culture Through 


It was through his observations of two 
now famous cases, that Broca (1861), dis¬ 
covered that the function of speech is cen¬ 
tered in a part of the brain less than two 
centimeters in diameter, in the left third 
convolution. It was through their obser¬ 
vations of still more cases that Wernicke, 
Lichtheim, Kussmaul, and others gave us 
what little knowledge we have of the proc¬ 
esses involved in reading and writing. It 
was through clinical observations, that Carl 
Lange was led to investigations that resulted 
in his theory about the nature of emotions, 
wellnigh the most important psychological 
discovery in the last fifty years. That this 
theory now is a part of common knowledge 
is due much more to that American phy¬ 
sician, the genius among American psy¬ 
chologists, William James, than to Lange 
himself. 

Some persons may find it difficult to ac¬ 
cept the demonstration of the personal will 
as an active agent in fashioning brain mat¬ 
ter, because it implies, that a purely spiritual 


Scientific Body Building 


33 


agency, such as they imagine the will to be, 
can cause definite material effects. This 
need not be wondered at, because there is 
no one word about which the fogs of meta¬ 
physics have gathered so thickly as about 
the word “Will.” 

We advise them to let metaphysics alone 
and turn their attention to the actual facts, 
which we have been considering. A brain 
center used for speaking is certainly an 
actual material fact, or else it could not be 
destroyed by a pointed stick. This ma¬ 
terial fact was made by a specific nerve 
stimulus repeatedly acting on that collec¬ 
tion of brain cells, till it was fashioned ac¬ 
cordingly, and all the other brain centers 
are fashioned by the specific nerve stimuli. 

For instance, a ray of light is a specific 
stimulus to the nerve cells of the retina, 
from which this stimulus is propagated by 
the optic nerves to the cells of the visual 
area in the posterior lobe of the brain. Now 
the effects of overstimulation of nerve cells 
have been experimentally observed in ani- 


34 


Brain Culture Through 


mals, by exposing one eye to a strong light, 
while the other was left dark, and then con¬ 
trasting the appearance of the cells, which 
had been overworked, with those of the 
other retina, which were kept at rest. The 
first effect of such stimulation is to cause the 
nerve cell to swell by absorption of the 
nutritive lymph, in which it is bathed, but 
as it becomes fatigued by the continuous 
stimulation, the cell shrinks, its nucleus be¬ 
comes displaced, and at last the whole cell 
becomes disorganized into dead stuff. The 
chemical results of this degeneration have 
been studied and reported to be a change 
from the normal protoplasm of the cell with 
its phosphureted neutral fat. 

But this is just what happens to the nerve 
fibres and nerve cells in a small spot, in the 
brain motor region, which orders the right 
thumb and forefinger to hold a pen. If 
the will does not let up on this order long 
enough to let those motor nerves of a book¬ 
keeper have a rest from its stimulation, we 
have a case of writer’s palsy, with the same 


Scientific Body Building 


35 


degeneration of motor nerve matter, and as 
a result, total atrophy of both the nerves 
and the muscles which they supply. Here, 
therefore, the will has ended its activity, 
with precious nerve matter turned into poor 
neutral fat, said fat being no more a thing 
of metaphysics than is a billiard ball. 

It is overstimulation in both cases, but 
the stimulus of light comes from the outside, 
and that of the will from the inside. But 
does the latter fact make the will less of a 
reality than is light, when it actually causes 
the same kind of physical and chemical 
changes? 

One of the most important conclusions to 
be derived from these facts is that we can 
make our own brains, so far as special men¬ 
tal functions or aptitudes are concerned, if 
only we have wills strong enough to take the 
trouble. By the most constant practice, as 
in Miss Keller’s case, the Will stimulus will 
not only organize brain centers to perform 
new functions, but will project new con¬ 
necting, or as they are technically called, 


36 


Brain Culture Through 


association fibres, which will make nerve 
centers work together, as they could not 
without being thus associated. 

Each such self-created brain center re¬ 
quires great labor to make it, because noth¬ 
ing but the prolonged exertion of the per¬ 
sonal will can fashion anything of the kind. 
The individual must do it all himself. A 
person, therefore, acquires new brain capac¬ 
ities by acquiring new anatomical bases for 
them, in the form both of brain cells which 
he has trained, and of actively working 
brain fibres which he has himself virtually 
created. 

This subject should especially commend 
itself to the serious attention of all educa¬ 
tors. Every teacher and parent ought to 
learn all that they possibly can about this 
subject. 

We are not responsible for the thoughts 
which enter our minds, but we are gravely 
responsible for the thoughts which we allow 
to stay there, because we have a kingly 
power within us which can command this 


Scientific Body Building 


37 


mechanically thinking brain to do its think¬ 
ing according to its orders, just as the brain 
in turn can command the spinal cord to stop 
acting reflexively to its afferent excitations, 
but to act only according to the brain’s 
behests. A brain however well developed 
it may be, is of no use to its owner, unless 
through discipline, the will has been so 
trained as to develop its mastery. 

We cannot overestimate the priceless 
value of such discipline. A mind always 
broken in to the sway of the Will, and, 
therefore, thinking according to will, and 
not according to reflex suggestion, consti¬ 
tutes a purposive life. Such a man or 
woman is the very embodiment of living 
power. But the important and practical 
truth to apply here, is that no power so grows 
in us by exercise, or so weakens and atro¬ 
phies by disuse, as the Will. 

Teach a child self-restraint and you are 
directly developing thereby his will power. 
Soon he will learn the next lesson in will de¬ 
velopment and win Carlyle’s great equip- 


38 


Brain Culture Through 


ment for life—“the ability to take trouble.” 
But physiology now adds that the will then 
alters the brain, by creating new places for 
the mind to work with. It is the will which 
creates the man. All will culture is inten¬ 
sive, and should guard us against the 
chance influences of life. It makes strong 
bodies obey. 

Let me add with much emphasis, that the 
training of the body, of memory, and of the 
will, are the most important factors in the 
education of the child; in the training of the 
memory, it is of especial importance. Mem¬ 
ory is often a gift, but mainly an acquisition, 
and can be immensely strengthened, if one 
has the energy and perseverance to set him¬ 
self to the task. I have known people of 
advanced years, who having discovered that 
this faculty was becoming enfeebled and 
treacherous, set themselves deliberately to 
work to re-energize it, exactly as one who 
feels that the muscles of his body are becom¬ 
ing less pliant, can correct this defect, and 
strengthen the whole body. By way of 


Scientific Body Building 


39 


suggestion to parents and teachers, I should 
say you must first arouse a desire for a fine 
memory and this can be done in a simple 
way. Select an interesting story, read it 
to a group of children, and after the reading 
is finished, require them to reproduce it. 
The effect will be to weave his powers of 
attention, comprehension and memory, into 
a single strong, compact cord. Try it. I 
have never found it to fail. We will leave 
the discoveries in brain localization, pass 
over many interesting phases of discovery, 
skip a few decades of experimentation, and 
take a brief glimpse of the first experiments 
of a great American Scientist. 

Professor Elmer Gates was an ardent be¬ 
liever in the transmission of acquired char¬ 
acteristics ; after some study, he became 
convinced that Weismann’s experiments and 
conclusions concerning his study of white 
mice was faulty. The theories of Weis- 
mann and other writers on heredity, reached 
from wrong premises, that acquired quali¬ 
ties or characteristics are not transmitted, 


40 


Brain Culture Through 


are ably contradicted by such scientists as 
Byer and Gates, as well as by such physi¬ 
cians as Sydney, Barrington and others. 

Professor Gates’ experiments have contra¬ 
dicted the conclusions of Weismann and 
others regarding heredity. They claim that 
we have no proof of a skill, an idiosyncracy 
or a habit acquired, during the lifetime of an 
individual being transmitted to that per¬ 
son’s offspring. The mutilation of a Chi¬ 
nese woman’s foot, they say, is not trans¬ 
mitted. Professor Gates says it could not 
be transmitted, because the change does not 
originate in the brain. 

Weismann cut off the tails of mice for 
twenty-eight generations, but the tails of 
the last generation were as long as those of 
the first generation, hence Weismann con¬ 
cluded that the acquired characteristics 
could not be transmitted from parent to 
offspring. Professor Gates saw, so far as 
the mice were concerned, that cutting off 
their tails was not an acquired character¬ 
istic, but simply an accidental deformation. 


Scientific Body Building 


41 


In defense of his theory, he trained white 
mice to use their tails, compelling them to 
distinguish between different weight pres¬ 
sures, touches, temperatures of heat, and 
currents of electricity. By this method, the 
mice were compelled to use their tails, 
which resulted in the development of new 
brain cells, and a corresponding develop¬ 
ment of the tail, in strength and activity. 
The fifth generation of these mice was born 
with tails two and a hah times as long as 
the tails of the first generation 5 the tails 
were also much larger, much stronger, and 
much more sensitive and active. This re¬ 
sult was the transmission of acquired char¬ 
acteristics. 

In every single case the characteristic of 
the animal was transmitted to the offspring, 
whenever a parent had made an effort to 
distinguish certain activities or conditions 
relating to itself. And in every case where 
the effort was not made, the acquired char¬ 
acteristics were not transmitted. Dogs 
trained from puppyhood to distinguish 


42 


Brain Culture Through 


many shades and tones of color gave birth 
to young who were able, before any training 
had been given them, to distinguish many 
more colors than ordinary dogs ever could. 
Guinea pigs were trained to distinguish mu¬ 
sical tones. This development was trans¬ 
mitted, and the brain cells of the hearing 
region of the offspring of the guinea pigs 
were better developed at birth than the 
brain cells of the ordinary guinea pigs are at 
maturity. 

Professor Elmer Gates has evolved a 
practical art of brain building by scientific 
training of the Body, which causes an in¬ 
crease in the structural elements of the 
Brain cells and whole nervous system and 
increasing mental capacity and skill, hence 
the very growth of the brain depends upon 
the growth and use of the muscular system. 

To the research work done in physiolog¬ 
ical psychology then we owe the new system 
of Physical Education, which has proven 
that one muscle overdeveloped and extra¬ 
ordinarily strong, indicates a brain center 


Scientific Body Building 


43 


overdeveloped’ another muscle underde¬ 
veloped and proportionately weak indicates 
a brain center in a semi-atrophied condition. 

The old-time teaching was to the effect 
that as a man’s tendency at his birth, so 
would his characteristics be shaped. Mod¬ 
ern psychology teaches us that we can do 
with ourselves what we will, no matter 
what ancestral trait has been reproduced. 
We ought to be proud indeed to know that 
we owe these marvelous discoveries to the 
vivid intellect of an American, Professor 
Elmer Gates. He has proven that all ex¬ 
cepting congenital idiots can be helped and 
cured. 

One of the most important results of mod¬ 
ern scientific research is the new light that 
is being thrown upon the scientific training 
of the body. Indeed, I have come to re¬ 
gard the body as the great psychological 
quarry of the brain, and we begin to realize 
that physical education as a science has just 
been born. 

And now we are trying to do in the realm 


44 


Scientific Brain Culture 


of human life, what Burbank has done in the 
realm of plant life. Burbank has gained a 
wide reputation because of his improve¬ 
ment of useful plants. He has produced a 
new kind of potato which has raised the 
value of the potato crop by about 3,500,000 
bushels per annum. He cultivated great 
numbers of fruit trees with the object of 
increasing their utility. 

Through the experimental research work, 
we have arrived at a more systematic 
method of developing the minds of children. 
The great value to humanity of the work 
done by Luther Burbank, in the plant 
kingdom, and in the experiments of Pro¬ 
fessor Gates in building brain cells for ani¬ 
mals and children by patient, steady labor 
will produce a wonderful race of human 
beings in a few generations after the en¬ 
lightened few become the illuminated many. 


EXERCISES FOR STIMULATING 
BRAIN CENTERS 




















CHAPTER II 


Exercises for Stimulating Brain Centers 

The exercises in this chapter are especially 
devised for stimulating the motor centers. 
It must be remembered that it is not ad¬ 
vantageous to make children who are suf¬ 
fering from excessive mental fatigue; go 
through a daily routine of useless mechanical 
exercises, for the bodily exercises must be 
definitely prescribed in order that they may 
awaken and stimulate instead of fatigue, they 
will then have a double effect, and will extend 
their benefits to the wearied brain of the 
child, as well as to the tired body. 

Muscular exercise will then act as a salu¬ 
tary counterpoise, to re-establish the bal¬ 
ance of the system which has been upset by 
excessive mental effort. Physical exercise 
carried to the point at which it produces ex¬ 
treme fatigue is not only injurious, but 
produces poisons in the system. Let us 


48 


Brain Culture Through 


look for a moment at the exercises of the 
ancient Greeks. We find that balancing 
exercises were the most prominent feature. 
Balance and breathing exercises represented 
the keynote of their method of physical 
perfection. 

In my classes I insist upon deep breathing 
before taking any of the exercises; also a 
position of perfect poise. The crown of a 
beautiful physique is correct bearing and 
artistic poise. This desideratum, however 
eagerly sought, is not usually possessed by 
athletes. Grace in figure and carriage is 
sacrificed on the altar of antiquated ideas 
of huge muscles. This method is designed 
to minister to the actual needs of profes¬ 
sional and lay people. The exercises evolved 
are to develop and build up perfect bodies, 
to give grace, endurance, strength and 
health. 

Balance—the one great fundamental law 
of all the arts—is the most essential of bodily 
exercises. The balancing exercises have a 
tremendous value, and reveal in many in- 


Scientific Body Building 


49 


stances a possible remedy for such serious 
diseases as some ataxias, paralysis, and dis¬ 
eases (not organic) involving loss of control 
of muscles and nerves. 

One interesting case which occupied my 
time and attention this year, was that of a 
young attorney, twenty-eight years of age. 
He had been under treatment for a year at a 
well known Sanitarium for a nervous dis¬ 
order, and returned home apparently cured. 
Some months later he came to my studio 
for some work in voice culture, as he wished 
to resume the practice of his profession. 
During the first few lessons there was 
noticed in his walk a peculiar deviation 
from the right lines. Later he manifested a 
decided incoordination in the gesture work. 
I felt that his recovery had not been com¬ 
plete, so I gave him various exercises osten¬ 
sibly for grace in gesture, but really for de¬ 
veloping muscular control, and finally he 
was led up to the difficult balancing exer¬ 
cises. 

An interesting observation recorded by 


50 


Brain Culture Through 


Dr. Luys, in his work on “The Brain,” may 
serve as an indirect proof, that after the 
loss of the function of a limb, certain parts 
of the gray matter of the brain undergo 
atrophy, due to inhibited action of the motor 
cells. If defective action can cause atrophy 
of the cells which preside over certain move¬ 
ments, we cannot refuse to admit that their 
frequent activity should promote their in¬ 
creased development. 

In the exercise for forward balance, the 
body should be perfectly poised and relaxed, 
then extend right foot and right arm in a 
straight line in front of the body, slowly bend 
from the hip joint, place right hand on the 
floor, then raise the hand from floor, raise 
left foot from floor, stand balanced on right 
foot for one minute. In my classes I insist 
upon each movement being immediately 
reversed, so that the corresponding nerve 
centers in the brain hemisphere shall be 
equally stimulated. These intricate bal¬ 
ancing movements call for the highest de¬ 
velopment of coordination between brain, 


Scientific Body Building 


51 


nerves and muscles. I have found them a 
panacea for persons suffering from spinal 
deviation, nervous and digestive disorders. 

The world wide demand for security 
against disease, and for higher physical 
efficiency, must result in a more thorough 
medical inspection of our schools, or what 
would be more rational and economical, the 
forced inspection of children in their homes 
before being permitted to go to school. We 
must have new schools, for our children now 
need the training of their muscles as well as 
their minds. They need the training of 
their minds through their muscles. Few 
realize how much coordination between 
muscle and brain means to the normal in¬ 
dividual. We know that the brain is taught 
by the muscles, as well as by the function 
of ear and eye, and that fully ninety-eight 
per cent of our life is guided by muscular 
sensation. 

In scientific physical training the mind 
becomes the master and the muscles of the 
body, the servant. The body becomes 


52 


Brain Culture Through 


vivified, the nervous system strengthened, 
the brain dominates the clamour of the 
senses, and is free to use the vital currents 
for the highest and noblest service. 

The exercises given in this course stimu¬ 
late the brain and open up the way, making 
it easier for the blood to circulate. The 
sense of balance is governed partly by the 
feeling of the muscles, partly by the sense 
of sight, and in part by an organ in the ear, 
the center of equilibrium. 

Patient effort and scientific experiment 
have produced astounding results in bring¬ 
ing out the qualifications of sub-normal 
children, and in correcting the physical 
misfortunes of little ones. Indeed, we know 
now that many forms of arrested mental 
development are related to bodily disease, 
and that when the latter is corrected the 
brain becomes relatively normal. 

In visiting institutions for the feeble¬ 
minded and imbeciles, one cannot but be 
impressed with the shambling gait and the 
weak leg powers of idiotic children. Certain 


Scientific Body Building 


53 


specific leg exercises, especially those used 
in balancing movements, overcome the 
incoordination between brain and muscle. 

The nerve cell activity involved in the 
muscular action of a muscle must influence 
the nutrition of a portion of the brain, just 
as much as contraction influences the nu¬ 
trition of the muscle. It is then evident 
that certain portions of the brain which 
preside over voluntary movements, are stim¬ 
ulated by muscular exercise just as other 
parts of this organ that are concerned in 
intellectual operations, may be developed 
by mental work. It also affords a con¬ 
vincing illustration of my claim that all 
education, all culture, should issue from a 
well-rounded development of the motor side 
of life. 

A well known writer on the subject of 
heredity says: “wherever genius is observed, 
we find it accompanied by degeneration, 
which is evidenced by physical abnormalities, 
or mental eccentricities,”but he should have 
specified that it is only the genius of sesthet- 


54 


Brain Culture Through 


icism, or the genius of emotion, that is gen¬ 
erally accompanied by unmistakable signs 
of degeneration, for if we go into the studies 
of the lives of mechanical geniuses, we find 
that they do not, as a rule, show signs of 
degeneration. I refer to Darwin, Galileo, 
Edison, Watts, Rumsey, Howe and Morse 
to prove the truth of this statement. 

Manual training is of inestimable value, 
requiring the coordination of eye and hand, 
and at the same time knitting together the 
cerebral areas concerned, resulting in a 
general betterment of the organization of 
the brain. Of great interest to parents and 
teachers of backward children are the spe¬ 
cific exercises for arms and legs, as weakness 
of the leg muscles follows the lack of coor¬ 
dination between head and feet. Of most 
vital importance to all, is the amount and 
quality of the circulation of the blood in the 
brain. The nourishment, growth and de¬ 
velopment are dependent upon this, as 
there can be no conscious act in the brain, 
except where there is circulation of the 
blood. 


Scientific Body Building 


55 


Improved physical development of chil¬ 
dren may be brought to a degree of normal 
growth by a series of specific exercises of the 
arms and legs, associated with an intelligent 
teacher, who suggests continued effort until 
the child’s training permits it to act auto¬ 
matically and establishes the correct habits. 
Physiology teaches us that whenever a nerve 
is stimulated, or whenever a muscle con¬ 
tracts, an electric impulse flashes along the 
nerve and through the muscles; manipula¬ 
tion of the wasted limbs of a paralytic will 
for this reason cause the muscles of the 
limb to grow, and restore the lost vitality. 

The position of the vital organs is de¬ 
pendent upon the tone and elasticity of the 
supporting tissues, which hold them in their 
proper positions. These supporting tis¬ 
sues reflect the condition of the muscular 
system. If the muscular system be weak 
and flabby, relaxation and a long chain of 
troubles follow. Exercises in such cases 
tone the structures and aid in correction. 

The first thing to be acquired before tak- 


56 


Brain Culture Through 


ing any of the exercises, is a correct standing 
position. We take our line of the body 
from the Greeks. See that your body is in 
such a position that a line will pass through 
ear, shoulder, hip, knee and ball of the foot. 
Get the position before a glass and practice 
it until it can always be maintained. It 
gives ease, grace and strength. 

Of special interest to the boys is the Mil¬ 
itary Position: 

1. Heels in line and together. 

2. Feet turned equally outward, form¬ 
ing an angle of 45 degrees. 

3. Knees straight. 

4. Body square to the front. 

5. Chest expanded and advanced. 

6. Arms hung easily to the side. 
(Swing them out, and let them drop like a 
pendulum.) 

7. Shoulders equal height. 

8. Shoulder blades flat. 

9. Head erect, raised at the crown as if 
suspended by a cord, and not tipped in any 
direction. 


Scientific Body Building 


57 


10. Chin, slightly drawn in. 

11. Form raised to full height. 

12. Body poised slightly forward so that 
the weight bears mainly on the ball of the 
foot. Eyes, straight to the front. 

When walking or standing, toes should 
not be turned outward at an angle of forty- 
five degrees, (this I mentioned only to 
quote the true military position). I know 
this has been taught in schools, gymnasiums, 
and the army for years, but this awkward 
and unstable position destroys the correct 
balance, and produces weakness, and in 
time, even deformities. I believe that the 
enormous increase of flatfootedness is due 
to the custom of toeing out, which is com¬ 
monly taught as the correct position. 

The following exercises will be found in¬ 
valuable for equalizing the circulation, for 
aiding digestion and for promoting natural 
breathing: 

Exercise 1. Carry the weight of the body 
as far forward as possible, hold position 
while you count seven, then carry the body 


58 


Brain Culture Through 


backward as far as possible while you count 
seven. This must be done without lift¬ 
ing the heels, or bending the knees. Also 
of great importance is the point from which 
the movement starts. Always start the 
movement from the ankle joint. Inhale 
deeply while counting. 

Exercise 2. Same position. Bend slowly 
from side to side, keep knees straight and 
feet firm. 

Exercise 3. Hands forward on hips, bend 
trunk at hips slowly forward, rise slowly 
and bend backward, always keeping the 
head in position with the body. 

Exercise 4. Correct standing position, 
inhale deeply, arms extended at sides, touch 
the shoulders lightly with the tips of the 
fingers; bring the elbows slowly in front of 
the body, touching them together, lift el¬ 
bows as high as possible, throw elbows back 
and up, the fingers still touching shoulders, 
bring them back to starting position—expel 
air from lungs. This exercise elevates the 
ribs, and expands upper and lower parts of 
chest. 


Scientific Body Building 


59 


Exercise 5. Correct standing position. 
Inhale. Finger tips to shoulder, inhale 
while you count twenty, then with clenched 
fist, strike downward, and forward, stop 
suddenly as if striking an object. Expel 
breath forcibly with the motion. If the 
motion is decisive, the breath will naturally 
be expelled by the diaphragm. 

Exercise 6. Kneel on a cushion, knees 
far apart, stretch arms upward, parallel with 
each other by the side of head, bend slowly 
backward as far as possible, remain to count 
four, return forward as far as possible, keep¬ 
ing knees and feet firm. This is one of the 
best exercises for strengthening the muscles 
of the back and pelvis. 

Exercise 7. Same position, hands clasped 
on top of head, move the body from side to 
side very slowly with each movement, and 
then rest. In the same position, twist the 
body from right to left. 

Exercise 8. Same position, arms extend¬ 
ed horizontally forward, throw them back¬ 
ward in a direct line, as far as possible. 


60 


Brain Culture Through 


This may be practiced quickly or slowly as if 
carrying a weight. 

Exercise 9. Reclining upon back, flex 
knees, and sway them from side to side. 

Exercise 10. Same position, flex and 
thrust the limbs downward alternately. 

Execise 11. Reclining face downward, 
flex knees and sway feet from right to left, 
then from left to right. 

Exercise 12. Same position, with the 
help of an assistant, flex and extend the 
limbs, using resistance. 

Exercise 13. Same position, rest on el¬ 
bows and sway shoulders from right to left. 

Exercise 14. Same position, elevate the 
body slowly, resting only on toes and elbows. 

Exercise 15. Recline on back, and make 
hand thrusts upward, outward, forward and 
downward. 

Exercise 16. Reclining on back, flex the 
knees with the help of an assistant, extend 
the limbs alternately, using resistance. 

In all these exercises it is persistent, pa¬ 
tient effort that gives decided results. One 


Scientific Body Building 


61 


will not see their effects in one day, nor in 
one week unless it is in greater freedom of 
breath. At first soreness may follow the 
use of muscles unaccustomed to exercise; a 
wet compress or a hot bath will relieve this. 

These exercises should be taken in loose 
clothes, at stated times. The best time is 
before the morning bath, and before re¬ 
tiring at night. 

Going up and down stairs is a fine exer¬ 
cise; in order to get the best results, one 
should keep the mouth closed, fill the lungs 
with air, hold the breath until the top of the 
stairs is reached, and then expel slowly. In 
doing this the diaphragm and abdominal 
muscles have been brought into action by 
the deep breath, while the muscles of the 
thigh, pelvis, perineum and groin, are all 
engaged in elevating the body. Each time 
the thigh is raised, pressure is made upward 
upon the abdominal viscera, which if there 
is not outside counteracting force, (such as 
corsets or bands), are pushed outward and 
downward. Going up and down stairs, 


62 Brain Culture Through 

two steps at a time, is also a fine stimulating 
exercise. 

Physical education appeals to some of the 
deepest of all interests. It is based upon 
the most generic of all instincts, the instinct 
of activity, the tendency to display energy, 
skill and endurance. It is the inspiration 
for the development of the special instincts, 
and the essence of originality in culture. It 
is associated with the most fundamental 
activities and emotions of the human race. 

One of the distinctive features of the 
course, is the special emphasis laid upon ex¬ 
ercises prescribed for groups of muscles, 
which remain unused in the series of ordi¬ 
nary exercises. This is particularly true of 
the muscles and ligaments of the back, neck 
and shoulders, for common movements and 
industry, and even games which train only 
a limited number of muscle activities and 
coordinations. Every unused muscle or 
tightly bound organ deteriorates through 
the inactivity thus induced. Immobility 
must be replaced by mobility. This brings 


Scientific Body Building 


63 


us to the most important phase of this work 
—where Expression comes as a natural re¬ 
sult of the associated training of widely dif¬ 
ferentiated faculties, and so creates a desire 
for physical beauty of form, the result of 
which is a decided moral effect. 








OPENING UP THE MAIN ROAD 
TO THE BRAIN 






CHAPTER III 


Opening up the Main Road to the Brain 

Interesting and important as it is to find 
within our grasp an educational system be¬ 
yond the ordinary scholastic means for un¬ 
folding the human intellect, attractive as it 
may be to contemplate an effective mode of 
removing bodily difficulties without re¬ 
course to drugs or any painful or unpleasant 
physical appliances, to know how to improve 
morals or to develop the moral sense in 
those who seem deficient of conscience or 
moral feeling, still the task remains to find 
the teachers fully equipped for this greatest 
of all work. 

I believe that there are thousands of 
pupils attending our schools and colleges 
who are incapable of attaining their great¬ 
est mental potentiality, or living up to the 
highest standards of morality, because their 


68 


Brain Culture Through 


motor energy is inhibited from the various 
channels of expression. 

It is claimed on evidence resulting from 
experimentation in biological, physiological 
and psychopathological fields, that man 
possesses large stores of unused energy 
which the ordinary stimuli of life are unable 
to reach and even tend to inhibit; it is in 
unloosening these serious inhibitions through 
exercises, specifically given to arouse mus¬ 
cular electricity which will release the pent- 
up reserve energies by switching them into 
the diseased portions of the body and brain, 
that has proven a remedy for many dis¬ 
orders. 

According to certain physiologists, a - 
nerve has besides the power of conducting a 
stimulus received by it, the further power 
of reenforcing that stimulus, which they 
call the nervous avalanche. 

In training persons suffering from ex¬ 
treme physical torpidity, I noticed a sudden 
awakening of energy, in response to certain 
exercises, and I believe that this demon- 


Scientific Body Building 


69 


strates that if the nerves have the power of 
amplifying the stimuli which is conveyed to 
the muscle, this same wonderful power can 
be made almost creative in its genius for 
coherent expression. 

It is true that the muscles increase in 
size and strength by exercise, but it is also 
true that when muscles are too continuously 
or too vigorously exercised, particularly 
upon the same movement, the muscles rebel 
by pain and finally by wasting. 

We must get away from the antiquated 
idea of developing large muscles; this is a 
very erroneous notion which has come down 
to us from primitive times. Among men in 
the earlier days, to discover the greatest 
man, the measuring string was placed around 
the muscle; that was the age of Hercules. 
Then came the time when the measuring 
string was placed around the head; that was 
the age of Bacon and Shakespeare. But 
the time will come in the rapidly advancing 
future when the measuring string will be 
placed around the heart, and he who meas- 


70 


Brain Culture Through 


ures most there will be most conformed to 
the Master, for he is greatest who most fully 
gives himself for others. The time for huge 
muscles has long since past; within the last 
few years scientists have been thoroughly 
investigating the effects of violent athletics. 
As I have previously stated, muscle was 
once important, in barbaric times, now it is 
unimportant and we know when too highly 
developed, it is actually harmful. All the 
evidence proves that the athlete has not 
so good a chance for long life as the delicate 
student and as a rule, the student outlives 
the gymnast, athlete or pugilist. 

When the strongest man was the ruler of 
other men, when muscle meant protection 
from starvation, when muscle did the work 
that machinery now does, muscle was im¬ 
portant. Today the less muscle you have, 
the better, provided you have healthy 
muscle and healthy blood. We have only a 
certain amount of vitality in our bodies; all 
muscle takes up its share of vitality, and 
leaves that much less for the brain and the 


Scientific Body Building 


71 


heart. We should not exercise to increase 
the size of our muscles, but just enough to 
keep our muscles and entire system in good 
condition. The successful people of today 
owe their success to their brains and not to 
their muscles. 

The draft horse type of man is going, and 
the race horse type is coming in. 

The ancient victories of the world were 
won by huge Norsemen Vikings, great ter¬ 
rible men with hairy chests and enormous 
muscles—yet a little round-shouldered man 
like Harriman can have fifty thousand of 
the old Viking type working on his railroad, 
each paying him a good share of his earn¬ 
ings. 

Exercise is extremely beneficial because 
of three things: 

1. It promotes circulation. 

2. It causes the lungs to work, to take 
more oxygen. 

3. It causes perspiration, which purifies 
the body and relieves the kidneys by doing 
part of their work, and also aids all the or- 


72 


Brain Culture Through 


gans in the performance of their functions. 

If scientifically devised exercises are given, 
they cause an increase in the structural ele¬ 
ments of the brain centers. Every inch 
that you add to your biceps or the calf of 
your leg, over and above what is necessary 
to keep you healthy and active, does just 
that much harm to your brain. 

The trend of the day is toward the more 
powerful brain, and the smaller muscle. 
The thin, wiry, nervous body is ideal from 
the standpoint of art and usefulness, so 
cease thinking of the size of your muscle; 
use your brain intelligently. Thought is a 
functioning of the brain; add an inch if you 
can to the circumference of your head; 
thinking really does that. 

So in my schools special care has always 
been given the important problem of “mus¬ 
cular dosage.” A specialist in prescribing 
exercise must always take into account the 
muscular education of the person; espec¬ 
ially is this of the gravest importance in the 
schoolroom where there are always abnor- 


Scientific Body Building 73 

mal conditions present which must be treat¬ 
ed with specific exercises. 

I should advise teachers to watch care¬ 
fully the fatigue of the individual, as no 
sharp line can be drawn between what is 
normal and what is pathological in fatigue, 
for what is normal for one person, may be 
pathological for another. 

In giving the balancing exercises to a pupil, 
or in taking the balancing exercises, be care¬ 
ful not to overfatigue. If the person has 
been standing with the weight on the back 
leg muscles, the strain of bringing the weight 
on the muscles of the front leg will be severe 
at first, but usually disappears within a 
month of training. 

The work of the ordinary gymnasium 
takes no cognizance of the vast differences in 
individuals, and I find large numbers who 
need much personal prescription. Most 
of the boys and girls in our schools, especial¬ 
ly those who have grown rapidly, need 
special leg exercises; they also need exercises 
which will almost instantly compel a “sense” 


74 


Brain Culture Through 


of balance. Stand with weight of body on 
right foot, right side relaxed, right arm ex¬ 
tended at right side; hold until you feel a 
sense of discomfort in right hip area, then 
bring the right arm forward toward the 
front at an angle of forty-five degrees from 
the first position, holding it in a diagonal 
line, and you will soon feel distress of posi¬ 
tion descend to the knee joints; then bring 
right arm directly in front of the body at 
full length and you will soon feel the sense 
of distress in the ankle joint. These move¬ 
ments require great concentration to “feel” 
the play and discriminate the movements in 
the different muscle groups involved. 

To acquire the power of doing all these 
exercises with consciousness and volition, 
mentalizes the body, gives control over to 
the higher brain processes, and develops 
them by restricting their activities from the 
influence of lower centers. Then follow 
many exercises which require great alertness 
of attention in order to translate instantly, 
by imitation or verbal command, into an 


Scientific Body Building 


75 


act. With such movements, every un¬ 
trained automatism, and every striated 
muscle, is made capable of direct muscular 
control, and must always be dominated by 
the will. Such movements and intricate 
exercises develop the motor centers and open 
up one of the main roads to the brain. 

To know that we are strengthening and 
developing some point in a child, where 
heredity has left him w^eak, is a most in¬ 
spiring thought. To keep the switchboard 
action of the brain in a bright, normal, ac¬ 
tive condition is something worth striving 
for. The brain unorganized by training, 
has, to use a well worn aphorism, saltpetre, 
sulphur and charcoal, or all the ingredients 
of gunpowder, but never makes a grain of 
it because they never combine. 

Brain localization teaches us, that the 
motor centers are closely related to the 
psychic. The highest mental centers can 
be demonstrated to have direct connection 
with the lower motor, and trophic centers. 
Every center can now be proved to have 


76 


Brain Culture Through 


strands of association fibres to every other 
center, and every center acts on its organ, 
or is reacted on in turn; accordingly, we 
know that it is not the brain alone, but the 
whole body that is the true organ of the 
mind, and that as the motor centers are 
aroused and stimulated into activity, many 
dormant psychic centers can be awakened 
and developed. 

It is related of Julius Caesar, that he could 
dictate, write, plan and carry on a conver¬ 
sation, all at the same time, and that Dr. 
S. Weir Mitchell, besides being a physician, 
is a scientist, novelist, poet, historian, critic, 
lecturer, connoisseur, and a man of affairs. 
I must repeat what I said in a previous 
chapter, we must cultivate variability of 
movement. Beware of fixed habits, fixed 
manners. Man is largely a creature of 
habit, and many of his activities are more 
or less automatic. This I feel, is one of 
the chief causes of premature old age. 

In my schools, my one aim is to develop 
individuality, so every effort has been to 


Scientific Body Building 


77 


train variability of bodily movement, also 
a great variety of color in the speaking voice. 
Down in the heart and soul of every one of 
us, God has put a grain of individuality, a 
germ of “difference” from all the rest of 
creation. Let us begin to develop this pre¬ 
cious gift in our schools. Individuality is 
the essence of the human being. 

The great tragedy of childhood is that its 
personality has been warped and perverted 
from infancy up. Life is for the individual, 
and while the ostensible object of education 
is the training of a person for this or that 
vocation in life, the real end and the only 
end that has any ultimate value, is the cul¬ 
ture of character in the individual. 

To quote Boris Sidis of Harvard College 
in his criticism of our schools, “They stifle 
talent, they stupefy the intellect, they par¬ 
alyze the will, they suppress genius, they 
benumb the faculties of our children.” 

The aim of life should be to strive for the 
full use of our powers. The endeavor of 
ideal government is to secure this opportu- 


78 


Brain Culture Through 


nity for everyone. Education is the fitting 
of our children to have the full use of their 
powers, and when we insist upon getting 
these things recognized as fundamental 
facts, the rest will follow and we shall have 
a bedrock of common sense in education. 

The school textbooks contain a great deal 
of irrelevant material, they seldom have 
practical application, they are overloaded 
with mathematics, theory, history, and the 
whims and fancies of authors. This sort 
of peptonized education has developed the 
idea, that to be a cultured and lettered per¬ 
son, means to have a smattering knowledge 
of many subjects, with no obligation to 
know any one thing thoroughly. 

Listen for a moment to the words of 
Horace Mann: 

“At college I was taught the motion of 
the heavenly bodies, as if their keeping in 
their orbits depended upon my knowing 
them, while I was in profound ignorance of 
the laws of my own body. The rest of my 
life was, in consequence, one long battle 
with exhausted energies.” 


Scientific Body Building 


79 


And this from the lips of a scholar, the 
President of Antioch College, to whom is 
due the founding of normal schools in the 
United States. 

Mr. John Dewey in speaking of the isola¬ 
tion of school from life says, “When I was 
in the city of Moline a few years ago, the 
Superintendent told me that they found 
children every year who were surprised to 
learn that the Mississippi River in the text 
book had anything to do with the stream 
of water flowing past their homes, etc.; the 
geography being simply a matter of the 
schoolroom, it was more or less of an awak¬ 
ening to many children to find that the whole 
thing is nothing more than a formal state¬ 
ment of fact. Also he tells us that the sub¬ 
ject of compound business partnership is 
probably not in many of the arithmetics 
nowadays, though it was there not a gener¬ 
ation ago, for the makers of books said that 
if they left out anything, they could not 
sell their books. This compound business 
partnership originated as far back as the 


80 


Brain Culture Through 


sixteenth century; later the joint stock com¬ 
pany was invented, compound partnership 
disappeared, but the problems relating to 
it, stayed in the arithmetics for two hun¬ 
dred years. They were kept after they had 
ceased to have practical utility, for the sake 
of mental discipline—“they were such hard 
problems, you know,” and so the atrocious 
fatal sandpapering process of our children’s 
brains goes on from day to day, and their 
precious young minds are sacrificed to an¬ 
tiquated traditions of education, because 
the pedagogues are asleep in their academic 
seclusion, instead of being at work in the 
great laboratory of Life—the Schoolroom. 

The time is opportune to establish in the 
world a new idea of culture, the former cul¬ 
ture of the mind was static, and is symbol¬ 
ized by the scholar’s passively acquiring 
knowledge in a library. The culture of the 
twentieth century is dynamic, and is typi¬ 
fied by men and women of affairs using 
their lives in holy service to uplift humanity. 
When we consider the ignorant, wrong, 


Scientific Body Building 


81 


cruel and unjust methods which have pre¬ 
vailed since the beginning of history in the 
education of the young, added to the cram¬ 
ming and stuffing methods, and the pell- 
mell manner in which children are flung to¬ 
gether, it is a matter of amazement that so 
many good men and women have blessed 
the world. 

The question may be well asked here how 
it happened that America produced so 
many men of remarkable intellect, with such 
slight opportunities of education in former 
times, while our greatly improved univer¬ 
sities have not graduated an orator like 
Webster, a poet like Longfellow, or a prose 
writer equal to Hawthorne, during the last 
forty years. There have been few enough 
who have risen above mediocrity. It must 
be confessed, with a special cause for humil¬ 
iation, that we have not in art, literature and 
science, produced any man who measures up 
to the level of Raphael, Shakespeare and 
Darwin, for they have no equals in the whole 
human family. 


82 


Brain Culture Through 


It was a tremendous gain for the child of 
the twentieth century, when psychologists 
turned their attention away from metaphys¬ 
ical abstractions and devoted their time 
and study to the general physiology of the 
nervous system. Many of these discoveries, 
however, have been made within the last 
few years, and on that account they are 
scarcely known to the general public; they 
indicate, however, a revolution in education¬ 
al methods for the betterment of the human 
race, and we are led to consider as quite 
probable Nietzsche’s conviction—“that man 
as he now is, is only a bridge, only a transi¬ 
tion, between the animal and the super¬ 
man.” 

We point with pride to the tremendous 
advance which occurred, between the hypo¬ 
thetical speechless man of the tertiary epoch, 
and the man of the diluvial period, endowed 
with speech, who used fire and tools; then 
from this to the barbarians of the later 
stone age, who cultivated fields and tamed 
animals; then on through the dawning of 


Scientific Body Building 


83 


culture, through the bronze and iron ages to 
the civilized races of ancient and modern 
times; truly a tremendous intellectual ad¬ 
vance, and now the educational horizon is 
agleam with a light which shall lead us on to 
greater height of intellectual and physical 
perfection. 

We cannot think that man today is the 
end product of intellectual development; he 
is only the beginning of a new develop¬ 
mental process in which the brain will at¬ 
tain still further supremacy over the body, 
and in the dim procession of years, the fu¬ 
ture product will be a being of whose 
structure we can form no adequate concep¬ 
tion. Perhaps the actual “superman” whom 
Nietzsche evolved as the result of the con¬ 
tinued progress of development. 

The pioneers in the new educational move¬ 
ment must see that the schoolrooms are life 
laboratories, for making over human char¬ 
acter as well as human bodies, for as Horace 
Mann says, “one former is worth one 
hundred reformers.” It is time now with 


84 


Brain Culture Through 


the new knowledge at hand for psychologists 
to turn their backs on psychological sub¬ 
tleties, and go to work in a life of holy up¬ 
lift and service. 

To sum up briefly, the secret of opening up 
the Main Road to the Brain, is perfect con¬ 
centration upon each movement outlined in 
this course especially the exercises for Bal¬ 
ance. 

Each movement for the various balancing 
exercises calls forth an effort, or rapid suc¬ 
cession of efforts, the mind directing each 
movement; especially is this true where the 
balancing exercise is held for a minute. 

It is not enough for the teacher merely to 
state what she would like to have the pupils 
do, since in the majority of cases, the pupil 
has not the Will power, nor strength of 
mind, to drive his body to the point which 
can be called exercise. The teacher must 
have the art to create the desire for ohysical 
perfection. 

Then again, there is the rare exception, 
the pupil who will go about it too energet- 


Scientific Body Building 


85 


ically, for unless the body has been carefully 
trained to a point where it is equal to the 
demands put upon it, much harm may be 
done. Scientists are hard at work study¬ 
ing the cause of fatigue. 

Fatigue may be carried so far, it is claimed, 
that recovery from it is difficult, and in the 
exercised muscle, a few minutes of rest, al¬ 
low for a certain amount of recuperation, 
due to the taking up of fresh oxygen. 

Sleep is of value because it makes rest 
more complete, and this allows the elimina¬ 
tion to a further extent, of fatigue substance, 
and restoration of those things that are es¬ 
sential to further activity. 

An important question in the problem is 
how much food, rest and sleep are required 
for healthful recuperation. Fletcher, Chit¬ 
tenden and others say, that overeating, is 
one of the chief causes of overfatigue. 
They say that a superfluity of foodstuffs 
within the body, leads to an accumulation 
of metabolic products, which in themselves 
act on the tissues, as fatigue substances. 


86 


Brain Culture Through 


The matter of quantity differs with every 
individual, the same amount cannot be 
prescribed successfully for any two persons. 

I have made a thorough investigation of 
Fatigue in the schoolroom and I believe it 
is mainly due to three causes, poor ventila¬ 
tion, insufficient exercise, and autointox¬ 
ication. 

Besides the purely physiological and psy¬ 
chological aspects of fatigue, it has an im¬ 
portant relation to many sociological prob¬ 
lems. It is one of the chief causes of dis¬ 
ease, crime, poverty and misery. 

A scientist has recently estimated the 
minimum annual cost of serious illness in 
the United States. He says: “The economic 
waste from undue fatigue is probably much 
greater than the waste from all serious ill¬ 
nesses. Fatigue must be reckoned with in 
all human activities, and its toll must be 
rigidly paid.” 

The teachers in giving exercises, should 
look carefully to the conservation of energy 
by eradicating all awkward movements; a 


Scientific Body Building 


87 


pupil unskilled in the exercise he is doing 
expends two or three times the necessary 
amount of force. 

It is necessary to have personal experi¬ 
ence of bodily exercise to estimate the econ¬ 
omy of effort which results from a well co¬ 
ordinated movement. 

Coordination of movement is perfected by 
exercise. Train the body to obey the mind 
promptly. Physical exercises that are taken 
without the direction of the mind are usually 
awkward and clumsy. 

Each pupil should be thoroughly taught 
the fundamental movements of perfect 
poise—of walking, running, jumping, rising 
and sitting down, going up and down stairs, 
and of the bow. 

These simple movements are the very 
basis of grace, they give exercise to the mind, 
they also give the mind a better knowledge 
of the mechanism of the body in which it 
lives, and upon which it must depend for 
its own good health and activity, for from 
the body must generate the nervous energy 


88 Brain Culture Through 

that causes the mind to do things worth do¬ 
ing. 

Such training develops complete coordi¬ 
nation of mind and muscle and is therefore 
the great factor in opening up the Main 
Road to the Brain. 


THE CRYING EVIL OF COLLEGE 
ATHLETICS 






CHAPTER IV 


The Crying Evil of College Athletics 

In order that we may fully realize the 
useless and dangerous methods of our Col¬ 
lege and University Athletics, it is necessary 
to go back to the practices of the ancient 
Greeks in the Sixth Century before Christ. 

That remarkable century was the age of 
organized athletics in Greece. The rise of 
Sparta, and her success in sport and war, 
gave to the Greek world an object lesson in 
the value of systematic training. Thence¬ 
forth the training of the body was an essen¬ 
tial part of Greek education. 

Palaestrae and gymnasia were established 
so universally that Solon found it necessary 
to lay down laws for their conduct. An art 
of training sprang up, and in the time of 
Pindar the professors of the new science re¬ 
ceived honors scarcely inferior to those of 
the victors themselves. All classes caught 


92 


Brain Culture Through 


the athletic spirit. Later, competition rais¬ 
ed the standards of athletics, when all the 
states of Greece joined in the sports. One 
state alone, Sparta, held aloof from the new 
athletics and competitions. 

In Sparta, the main object of physical 
training was to produce a race of hardy sol¬ 
diers, and hence the new science which aim¬ 
ed at producing athletes could find no place 
there. No Spartan was allowed to employ a 
trainer in wrestling. 

Boxing was said to have been introduced 
by the Spartans. But though they recog¬ 
nized the value of boxing as a sport, they 
fully realized the dangers of it, from the 
competitive point of view, and therefore 
forbade their citizens to take part in boxing 
contests or in the pankraton, on the ground 
that it was a disgrace for a Spartan to ac¬ 
knowledge defeat. 

We know now, however, that the Spartans 
and Xenophanes were right. 

Wrestling is, perhaps, the oldest and most 
universal of all the sports, yet despite our 


Scientific Body Building 


93 


modern athleticism, it is certain that no 
other nation has ever produced so high an 
average of physical development as the 
Greeks in this period. This result was due 
largely to the athletic ideal which found its 
highest expression in the athletic poetry and 
art of the fifth century. This beautiful 
ideal is unique in the history of the world, 
nor are the circumstances, which produced 
it, ever likely to occur again. It was due in 
the first place to the early connection of 
athletics with religion. 

The Greek games were established in 
honor of the Gods; exercise was made a form 
of praise to the Gods and the ideals of re¬ 
ligion were invoked, that the soul might have 
a finer regenerated organism, with which to 
serve the Creator. And in those far dis¬ 
tant centuries before the Christian era, we 
find that the young men held self-control, 
chastity, and temperance as the absolute 
price of manhood; a sad commentary upon 
the athletics of the twentieth century! 

Without athletics, Greek art can scarcely 


94 


Brain Culture Through 


be conceived. The skill of the Greek artist 
in representing the form of the naked body 
resulted in the first instance from the habit of 
complete nudity in athletic exercises, a habit 
which Thucydides says was almost uni¬ 
versal in the palaestra of the sixth century 
It is interesting to note that there also arose 
in the same century, a demand for athletic 
statues, and that the early artists endeav¬ 
ored to express trained strength, by the 
careful treatment of the muscles of the body, 
especially those of the chest and abdomen. 

The wall paintings of Beni-Hassan show 
that almost every hold, or throw, known to 
modern wrestlers, was known to the Egyp¬ 
tians twenty-five thousand years before our 
era. 

To the Greeks, wrestling was a science 
and an art. Theseus, the reputed discov¬ 
erer of scientific wrestling, is said to have 
learned the rules from Athena herself. 
Very great importance was attached to 
grace and skill. It was not sufficient to 
throw an opponent. He must be thrown 


Scientific Body Building 


95 


correctly and gracefully. Hence even when 
athletics had become corrupted by profes¬ 
sionalism, wrestling remained free for the 
most part, from that brutality, which had so 
often brought discredit on one of the noblest 
of sports. 

The method of instruction was strictly 
progressive. The different movements, 
grips, and throws, were taught as separate 
figures, the simpler movements first, then 
the more complicated. 

It is somewhat of a surprise, to learn from 
this brief review of ancient Greek ideas 
concerning athletics that the ideals of an¬ 
tiquity, stood higher than those of the pres¬ 
ent day. Lycurgus , laws made compulsory 
the physical development of woman. Her 
development was watched over as well as 
that of the man, and we learn that Judaism 
stood higher still in its attitude toward the 
seriousness of procreation. These deep con¬ 
victions of the ancients expressed themselves 
in the strictest hygienic legislation known to 
history. 


96 


Brain Culture Through 


All competition has a false ethical basis. 
Competitive athletics are a serious bar to 
general, all-around physical development. 
They concentrate interest upon competitive 
success, instead of individual superiority. 

College athletics are a blot upon our ed¬ 
ucational system. The wealth of college 
associations is expended for the training of a 
dozen or a score of picked men; the rank and 
file, those most in need of exercise and bod¬ 
ily training are expected, from loyalty to 
the institution, to crowd the bleachers and 
root for the success of their team. College 
athletics are too often regarded as adver¬ 
tising media rather than for the benefit they 
should afford the entire student body. 

The college athletics for girls present a 
subject for the gravest consideration; their 
great need is serious revision, and the elim¬ 
ination of many of their games. Hockey 
is unsuitable for growing girls. It entails 
violent exercise on two days a week, when 
the girls are exhausted with brain work. 
It is always noticeable on the day following 


Scientific Body Building 


97 


a college match, that the girls are listless, 
inattentive and lethargic. The character¬ 
istic stoop, the slovenly gait, the ungainly 
appearance of the average hockey girl, all 
are due to the fact that the player has to 
adopt a stooping, one-sided position, which 
directly encourages round shoulders, spinal 
curvature, school dyspepsia, school head¬ 
aches, nerve and habit spasms. 

Without going into further details of the 
unjust and dangerous methods of our col¬ 
lege athletics, it will suffice to close the re¬ 
marks with a quotation from Colonel Lar- 
ned’s interview in the Literary Digest of 
September 5, 1898: 

“Of 314 young men examined for entrance 
to West Point, 82 were rejected on physical 
examination, and 18 were placed on proba¬ 
tion making a total of 100 physically de¬ 
fective. 

“That 30 per cent of these lads were phys¬ 
ically unfit, is perhaps the most serious 
feature of the grewsome exhibit. That 314 
youths, nearly all trained in our costly pub- 


98 


Brain Culture Through 


lie schools, with an average of almost 10 
years attendance, supplemented in the case 
of one-third of their number by private 
schooling and in the case of 43 per cent by 
college training, should show 84 per cent of 
failure and various other deficiencies, is 
surely a state of affairs, that should make 
the judicious grieve, and our educators wake 
up.” 

Colonel Larned’s interview concluded with 
this criticism: “That 30 per cent of physi¬ 
cal deficiency, in our youth, is a condition of 
our civilization, which may well give con¬ 
cern more especially in view of the increas¬ 
ing tendency of population to urban cen¬ 
ters. 

“What are we going to do about it? 

“Does education have anything to do with 
it? And if so what does an education 
amount to that shows this percentage of 
deficiency in its output? 

“If Education is concerned with mental 
development alone, it is fair to ask, if 16,- 
596,503 boys and girls taught in our schools, 


Scientific Body Building 


99 


at a cost of $376,996,472 average no better 
in intellectual attainments than is evidenced 
by the foregoing, does the result justify the 
outlay, and the ten or more years appren¬ 
ticeship of youth it demands?” 

Let us look for a moment at the anti- 
physiological methods which prevail in our 
army. In the Army men are placed in 
ranks, according to their height, and it 
would seem natural enough that men of the 
same height should take steps of the same 
length. That is an erroneous estimation 
because the step is regulated by the length 
of the leg, and among men of the same 
height we find some with long trunks and 
short legs, so if men are placed in ranks ac¬ 
cording to height, their march must be out 
of step. 

The Director of the higher branches of 
Anthropology, in the Institute of France 
urged the government to substitute for the 
present classification by height, classifica¬ 
tion by length of leg. Such a classification 
would have the effect of avoiding unneces- 


100 


Brain Culture Through 


sary fatigue. But it is not likely that a new 
form of classification will be accepted by 
the government. A regiment classified by 
length of leg would not present a very hand¬ 
some appearance. Some men would be 
considerably taller than their neighbors, and 
the ranks would be of very irregular height. 
The aesthetic plays an important part in all 
bodies given to public parades. It is prob¬ 
able that personal pride will outweigh psy¬ 
chological as well as physiological require¬ 
ments. 

The aesthetic should play an important 
part in physical education, because the ex- 
pressional movements give an impetus to 
the individual rhythm. 

There is an infinite satisfaction in begin¬ 
ning early in life to cultivate our finer qual¬ 
ities, to develop finer sentiments, purer 
tastes, more delicate feelings, and the love 
of the beautiful in all its varied forms of 
expression. 

There can be no greater investment than 
the cultivation of a desire for expression; it 


Scientific Body Building 


101 


will bring rainbow hues, and enduring joys 
to the whole life. It will not only greatly 
increase one’s capacity for happiness, but 
it will also add greatly to one’s efficiency. 

Character is developed largely through 
the eye and ear. The thousand voices in 
nature of bird and insect and brook, the 
sighing of the wind through the trees, the 
perfume of flower and meadow, the myriad 
tints in earth and sky, in ocean and forest, 
mountain and hill, are just as necessary, for 
the development of a real man, as the edu¬ 
cation he receives in our colleges. 

We read in the life of Darwin, that once 
while standing in the midst of the grandeur 
of a Brazilian forest he was so much im¬ 
pressed that he wrote in his Journal: 

“It is not possible to give an adequate 
idea of the higher feelings of wonder, admi¬ 
ration and devotion which fill and elevate 
the soul. I well remember my conviction 
that there is more in man than the mere 
breath of his body.” 

A love for the beautiful has a refining, 


102 


Brain Culture Through 


softening and enriching influence upon the 
character, which nothing else can accom¬ 
plish. It is most unfortunate for a child to 
be brought up in an atmosphere in which it 
is missing, and where only a merely loving 
spirit is manifested, and where he is trained 
to think that the most important thing in 
life is to secure more money, more houses, 
more land, instead of more nobility, more 
sweetness, more beauty. The life that 
would be made complete, that would be 
sweet and sane, as well as strong and rich, 
must be ornamented, softened and enriched 
by a love of the beautiful. 

There is a great lack in the make-up of any 
person who has no appreciation of beauty, 
who does not thrill before a great picture or 
an entrancing sunset, or a glimpse of beauty 
in nature. The love of beauty is a very 
important element in the poised symmetri¬ 
cal life. We little realize how every beauti¬ 
ful picture, every wonderful sunset and bit 
of landscape, every beautiful form and 
flower, beauty in any form wherever we 


Scientific Body Building 


103 


encounter it, ennobles and elevates char¬ 
acter. We gain wonderfully in every way, 
by keeping the soul and mind responsive 
to beauty. It is a great refresher, recuper¬ 
ator, life-giver and health-promoter. Just 
in proportion to your love for the beautiful, 
will you acquire its charms, and develop 
its graces. The beauty thought and the 
beauty ideal will stamp themselves in the 
face and manner. If you are in love with 
beauty, you will be an artist instead of an 
artisan. 

Parents should never lose an opportunity 
of letting their boys and girls see beautiful 
Works of art, and hear the best music. They 
should make a practice of reading to them, 
or having them read very often, some lofty 
poem, or inspirational passages from some 
great writer, that will fill their minds with 
thoughts of beauty. The highest beauty, 
which is far superior to mere regularity of 
feature or form, is within reach of every¬ 
body; that of heart beauty, soul beauty. It 
is as essential to cultivate the aesthetic fac- 


104 


Brain Culture Through 


ulties, and the heart qualities, as to culti¬ 
vate what we call the intellect. 

The time will come when our children will 
be taught both at home and in school to 
consider beauty as a most precious gift, 
which must be preserved in purity, sweet¬ 
ness and cleanliness, and regarded as a di¬ 
vine instrument of education. All culture 
intensifies and refines the personality. There 
is no investment which will give such sweet 
returns as the culture of the finer self, the 
development of the sense of the beautiful, 
the sublime and the true. 

For years I have noticed the awakening of 
the mind and soul in our young people in 
response to the expressional training of the 
body. It is well in the beginning to instil 
in the child’s mind a desire for a beautiful, 
well poised strong body. It must be re¬ 
membered that out of the Greek love for 
beautiful bodies and physical perfection 
grew all their arts. 

One of the evil results that often attends 
the work in our college gymnasiums is the 


Scientific Body Building 


105 


muscle binding of many a promising athlete 
after a brief brilliant career as a muscular 
marvel. He is obliged to drop out of ath¬ 
letic events, and give place to younger and 
less experienced athletes, who will in time 
suffer from the same misfortune. 

What is this condition known as muscle- 
bound? It is a serious affliction, and might 
with justice be called a malady. The 
muscles become larger and at first glance 
suggest tremendous power. But their real 
power is gone. The vital principle of elas¬ 
ticity is lacking. The most common cause 
of muscle binding is excessive training. The 
young athlete, trying to make a strong man 
of himself, does not stop when all physical 
indications point to the fact that he has had 
exercise enough for one day. He is training 
for endurance and believes that he is secur¬ 
ing it by doing a great amount of heavy ex¬ 
ercise in one bout. The muscles are sadly 
overtaxed. True, they grow larger, but at 
the expense of elasticity, without which 
muscle is of little value. 


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Brain Culture Through 


Our young athlete will proudly double his 
arm and show you great knots of muscle. 
The upper arm especially is bumpy, and 
swelling pads of muscles adorn his back. 
They are found in his upper leg and thighs, 
he is usually fond of excessive exercise. 
Watch him for a few years, and you will 
discover that he no longer takes pride in his 
condition. He has joined the ranks of the 
unwieldy “muscle-bound.” 

Now there is a phase of this unpleasant 
physical state that does not receive as much 
attention as it should. Muscle-binding of¬ 
ten begins in the practice of feats that pull 
too heavily on the tissues. The result is a 
slight tearing of the muscle. It may feel 
stiff and sore, but not enough so to warn the 
young athlete that he should rest, and that 
he should exercise much more lightly when 
he resumes. Nature does her best to repair 
these slight tears and the result is a slight 
unbalancing of the injured muscles that in 
time works serious mischief. If the young 
athlete should tear one of the ligaments of 


Scientific Body Building 


107 


the leg so seriously that he could not move 
about except on crutches, he would accept 
the warning, but the muscle lesion goes un¬ 
heeded. 

The Indians and Japanese hold in con¬ 
tempt the muscle bound condition of the 
American athlete; declaring that the white 
man’s muscle has no “brain” in it, whereas 
the Indians’ and the Japanese’ muscle is soft 
and flexible. 

By this method of Scientific Body Build¬ 
ing, however, no serious injury to muscles, 
tendons, or ligaments is involved; all these 
parts are strengthened by the work; each 
pupil is advised to employ far less than his 
full strength in performing the various feats, 
and while the exercises are to be executed 
with vim and celerity, it is never wise to use 
one’s strength to the limit of physical ex¬ 
haustion. Those who exercise thoroughly 
with a wise expenditure of strength will 
have sound and reliable muscles that will 
never become bound, and that in the mo¬ 
ment of need or emergency will respond to 


108 


Brain Culture Through 


demands upon them, to their fullest power. 

I find that many of the nervous diseases 
incident to school life, are due to an incor¬ 
rect position of the body in walking, stand¬ 
ing and sitting. Any pressure upon the 
spinal column is a serious menace to the very 
reservoir of life. To twist or crook the spine 
during study may cause disturbance just 
as electric wires if crossed and tangled raise 
the mischief. And yet, enter the class 
rooms of our schools and notice the very in¬ 
jurious positions of nearly all the pupils. 
Here indeed is the need of the most vital of 
all reforms. 

Therefore, it is a lamentable waste of 
time, brain power, and energy, to compel 
children already fatigued to go through a 
useless series of merely mechanical exercises 
with dumb-bells and other nerve destroying 
apparatus, while the body is entirely out of 
adjustment, yet this is just what is occurring 
in our schools every day. To enter a gym¬ 
nasium and see large classes of children, 
their eyes strained and their bodies rigid, 


Scientific Body Building 


109 


following the movements of a pair of dumb¬ 
bells in a teacher’s hands, whose body is 
anything but correctly poised, is a sight to 
be deplored. 

One of our most illustrious educators, G. 
Stanley Hall, declared years ago that all 
the apparatus work is distinctly antiphys- 
iological, and yet this injurious method is 
still in use. 

It is not at once clear to the mind that 
if this same amount of attention, given to 
counting the movements of dumb-bells, were 
directed to the form and improvement of 
their own bodies, a great saving of time and 
brain would result. 

It is said that approximately one out of 
every ten boys in the United States lives in 
New York and the large cities immediately 
adjacent, and within the limits of Philadel¬ 
phia, Boston, Chicago, and the other Amer¬ 
ican cities, where the population exceeds a 
hundred thousand. The brains of these 
millions of boys are being forced to their ex¬ 
treme capacity whether they are taught in 
the school, the shop, or the street. 


110 


Brain Culture Through 


But alas! what is being done for their 
bodies? The answer may be had by stand¬ 
ing at the door of almost any public or 
private school at the hour of dismissal. 
You will see large numbers of round-shoul¬ 
dered, narrow-chested, splay-footed boys and 
girls, also you will observe many who are 
suffering from curvature of the spine, and 
all this due to a lack of scientific training. 

Let me indicate in a general way and with¬ 
out excessive detail, a method which will in 
all cases, even of strong hereditary tenden¬ 
cies, produce well formed, symmetrical and 
finely poised bodies. 

The exercises must be taught progress¬ 
ively, at first the simple movements and 
positions separately, then combinations of 
these movements, which involve more ex¬ 
ertion. Next the exercises for perfect poise, 
given in chapter two, which are to train the 
muscles of the back and spine, to hold the 
body easily erect, as in standing or walking. 
This is the first essential and must always be 
insisted upon; then great pains should be 


Scientific Body Building 


111 


taken with the sitting position, the hips 
should rest against the back of a chair, the 
small of the back as well as the hip and 
shoulders should touch it easily, gracefully 
“fitting” it, but not lolling. The hip joint 
is a hinge and we should lean forward from 
the hips in conversing, reading, sewing, or 
other work, keeping the chest and abdomen 
in normal relation, not allowing the body to 
sag at the waist, or double over at the shoul¬ 
ders. 

Then the walk; walking is a fine art, but 
for the consideration of health alone, train¬ 
ing in correct walking should be a part of 
the instruction in the daily work of the 
school. To walk well, one must have a 
well poised body and head. The length of 
the step should not be too short nor too 
long, but regulated by our height, and we 
must acquire a certain bodily rhythm, that 
gives to the walk an indefinable graceful¬ 
ness, for any stiffness, or walking from the 
hips with the rest of the body immovable, is 
almost as ugly as walking with an excessive 
limberness. 


112 


Brain Culture Through 


Persons who turn their toes in, or turn 
one in and hold the other straight in front 
are extremely ungraceful in bearing. The 
rule is, subject to modification, of course, 
with reference to height, length of leg and 
breadth of person, that the toes of each foot 
should be turned out about two inches. 
Remember that breadth, as well as height, 
enters into the consideration. 

The length of the step must be propor¬ 
tioned to the length of the leg. If the foot 
is thrown too far forward for the natural 
stride, when it reaches the ground it strikes 
with a jar on the end of the heel; this is the 
most prevalent way of walking, with the 
average person. 

Children should be taught to stand cor¬ 
rectly, feeling the weight on the balls of the 
feet. This will not only throw the shoul¬ 
ders and chin into proper position, but will 
adjust the internal organs and save them 
from the serious, but very common maladies 
of flat feet, or spinal curvature. Walking 
on the heels throws much of the weight of 


Scientific Body Building 


113 


the body upon the soft walls of the abdomen, 
and this is the reason we see so many per¬ 
sons who have what is called “high stom¬ 
achs.” 

In walking, turn the toes out slightly and 
bring the weight upon the ball of the foot, 
pressing very lightly on the ball of each 
foot. Our laboratory workers have given 
us ample proof that all life, all activity, is 
emphatically rhythmic, and so to instil a 
sense of rhythm into a child’s walk is a 
splendid mental, as well as a physical tonic. 

There are a few simple points to remember 
in acquiring a graceful carriage. First, the 
body must be perfectly poised; all action 
must start from the hip joint, then one is 
prepared to take up the more difficult ex¬ 
ercises. 

Some pupils, because of natural weakness, 
will not be able at first to take up any of the 
severe work; these pupils should be kept 
upon the lighter work until the gradually 
improving physical condition makes it pos¬ 
sible for them to take up the severe work, 


114 


Brain Culture Through 


by very slow degrees. The light forms of 
exercise will consist mainly of bending and 
swaying, also many phases of light exercises, 
which call for resistant muscle feats. 

A very interesting and valuable form of 
exercise is the resistant “struggle.” Here 
the pupils face each other and bend slightly 
forward. The opposing hands of the con¬ 
testants are clasped with the fingers in¬ 
terlaced. At the start the hands should be 
on a level with the waist line, or slightly 
above. At the command “Start,” the pupil 
who has been chosen as aggressor should 
push the other pupil across the room. The 
feet should be well apart, but the contest¬ 
ants will discover just how far apart it is 
necessary to have them. The “struggle” 
should be continued until the designated 
distance has been covered. Then after 
some deep breathing, the exercise should be 
repeated back to the starting point. This 
exercise is one that calls for strenuous work, 
and develops arms and wrists. The pupils 
will delight in varying this in many ways. 


Scientific Body Building 


115 


They can clasp right hands only, and repeat 
the “struggle,” then left arms, only, and 
repeat. Then the right hand of one pupil 
should be opposed to the left hand of the 
other, and the push repeated, and vice 
versa. 

The pupil must remember at all times 
that the right side should never be exercised 
at the expense of the left. In fact, in the 
beginning proper training should develop as 
much strength in the left side of the body 
as in the right. The form of this exercise 
may be varied in many other ways. Hands 
may be clasped over each other’s heads, and 
the “struggle” may be employed. In this 
case the feet should be far apart, and the 
bodies of the pupils slanting toward each 
other. No parts of the bodies, except the 
hands, should touch. Then the pupils may 
bend over as close to the floor as they can go 
with comfort, and the feet a little more close 
together. With the hands clasped, as in the 
foregoing, they may struggle, but this will 
be found to be rather hard work. 


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Brain Culture Through 


A form of the exercise that is at first dif¬ 
ficult for people of mature age, is found in 
the back-to-back “struggle.” In this the 
two people stand with their shoulder blades 
touching each others’. The hands are ex¬ 
tended sideways on a level with the shoul¬ 
ders. Each contestant clasps the other’s 
hands, and the fingers are interlaced. Then 
with a slight backward inclination of the 
body of each, and with feet somewhat apart, 
the assailant pushes or pulls the victim across 
the floor. No part of the bodies below the 
shoulder blades should touch. The vital 
principle in these movements is the proper 
and emphatic resistance of one set of mus¬ 
cles by another. This may be accomplish¬ 
ed best, of course, when there are two stu¬ 
dents working together, but there are many 
resistant exercises that may be performed 
by the student when he is obliged to work 
alone. This idea may be simply explained, 
if the student will clinch his fists, cross the 
inside of his wrists, and hold his hands at the 
right hip. Now let the hands move up- 


Scientific Body Building 


117 


ward towards the face, up over the head, 
and down to the left hip, and here is where 
the resistance conies in. The right wrist 
must force the left wrist up until the over¬ 
head position has been passed. The left 
wrist must resist by a downward pressure 
against the right; after the overhead posi¬ 
tion has been passed, the left wrist takes up 
the role of assailant until the left hip is 
reached; and so on through many varied 
and ever changing exercises, we proceed to 
the movements for training expression in the 
body, and I always find a general delight 
among the pupils in this work. We must 
remember never to monotonize the exer¬ 
cises. Variety and variability of movement 
is the keynote of this work. 

We must teach rhythmical body move¬ 
ments to increase the power of expressing 
ourselves, and so restore the motor cells of 
expression, and I believe this variability of 
bodily movement increases the potentiality 
of brain centers. It also develops flexibility, 
sweetness and melody in the human voice. 


118 


Brain Culture Through 


As I have previously stated I know that 
certain nervous diseases are directly at¬ 
tributable to the excessive immobility of 
the individual. Mobility is the quality 
that distinguishes the higher from the lower 
forms of life, the mineral is inert, plants are 
rooted, only Man is free! 


DEVELOPING THE WILL THROUGH 
MOVEMENTS FOR MUSCULAR 
CONTROL 











CHAPTER V 


Developing the Will Through Movements 
for Muscular Control 

To build in this great city of the West 
“A Temple to the Will” has been a favorite 
dream of mine for the past few years. As 
yet it is only a castle in the air. This tem¬ 
ple shall be mainly for children, all children, 
where they can play and learn through the 
training of body, voice and speech, the great 
gift of self-expression. A race like an indi¬ 
vidual takes its first steps in conscious power 
when it rises to self-expression. The supreme 
aim of all education should be to teach the 
child to express its own proper and special 
gifts. 

The preparation of the young to meet 
temptation is of the first importance. The 
teaching of psychology is that every fall 
weakens to some extent the power of re¬ 
sistance, so, when education takes no cog- 


122 


Brain Culture Through 


nizance of the daily development of the will 
and moral character, and does not teach the 
destructive power of evil, it is lacking in its 
most essential requisite. Herbart fully re¬ 
alized this when he wrote his startling para¬ 
dox “The stupid man cannot be virtuous.” 

Every physical process, movement, and 
exercise which requires cooperation of mind 
or muscle is not only a body builder, but a 
brain builder; even the ancient Greeks felt 
that knowledge for its own sake was dan¬ 
gerous, for what frees the mind, is disastrous 
if it does not give self control. Better ig¬ 
norance than knowledge that does not de¬ 
velop the motor side; if in teaching a child, 
one can lead him to create something really 
his own, then you have opened up new 
vistas of brain development. Teach him to 
express first through the body, then through 
speech and voice; such training will open for 
the child, new channels of creative activities. 
It would unseal for him mental and moral 
avenues, otherwise forever closed, and have 
strengthened power and will; later when the 


Scientific Body Building 


123 


child feels the need of expressing himself, he 
finds he is able to do so, for he has quite un¬ 
consciously mastered the means of expres¬ 
sion. 

In taking the spinal exercises, especially 
those of the standing position, remember to 
get the position of perfect poise, then take 
the position of diagonal balance, inhale 
deeply, slowly, depress the spine, from the 
end, along its entire length, through to the 
base of the brain. If you start the balancing 
movement on the right foot, sway towards 
the left side; if you start the position for 
balancing on the left foot, sway towards the 
right side. The pupil must pay particular 
attention to the motion of the exercise, in 
twisting, bending, twirling and pivoting. 
This develops the muscles, the long dorsal 
muscles, that run over the convexity of the 
curvature of the spine. 

The most striking function of the verte¬ 
bral column is, of course, to support the 
trunk. The vertebrae in the cervical and 
lumbar regions serve as attachments for the 


124 


Brain Culture Through 


muscles. Incipient curvature as observed 
commonly in school children is caused by 
the spine being held in a stooping position 
too long at a time, until the mobility of 
the spine becomes restricted. It is possible 
to have a perfect standing position, and 
yet have an immobile spine. These special 
exercises train for mobility of spinal move¬ 
ments as well as for strengthening and de¬ 
veloping the spinal muscles. Children need 
the daily training of all these muscles as well 
as their minds. I have evolved these move¬ 
ments, have tried and tested them over and 
over again, to find that they in all cases, 
even of arrested mental development, stim¬ 
ulate the nerves and brain centers, give mo¬ 
bility and celerity of movement, strength 
and suppleness to the whole body. 

There is one form of disability closely 
connected with invalidism, the slow rate of 
development of the minds of many youths. 
The speed with which the intellectual ca¬ 
pacities unfold themselves in different indi¬ 
viduals varies greatly. The contrast be- 


Scientific Body Building 


125 


tween the precocity of Macaulay, Byron, 
Pope and Alexander Hamilton, and the con¬ 
dition of ordinary children, during the first 
ten years of their lives, is astounding. Along 
with the precocity exhibited by some chil¬ 
dren is found the phenomenon of retarda¬ 
tion, in others in which the mind though of 
normal constitution develops slowly. Thus 
a well organized youth of sixteen years of 
age does not attain to the normal measure 
of intellectual development, until he is 
twenty-six, and on this account our general 
scheme of education and our whole system 
of judgment of youth is inapplicable to 
him, and this problem is the deplorable yet 
significant gap in our educational methods. 

Some observation of the classes of Har¬ 
vard University has led to the conclusion, 
that in one thousand men, the average de¬ 
parture in the rate of development is as 
much as a year or perhaps eighteen months, 
and that in that number of young men we 
can always find a score or more youths of 
what might be called average capacity, who 


126 


Brain Culture Through 


are as much as four years apart from their 
associates in mental power. 

It is, therefore, painfully evident that 
these peculiarities of development should be 
recognized and made the basis of some re¬ 
adjustment in educational methods. It 
seems that there is a tendency in our nation 
to a slower rate of development than in ear¬ 
lier times, but there is also an increase of 
longevity and maintenance of vigor, the 
result of better hygienic conditions and more 
skilful medical treatment. 

One of the most illustrious instances of 
the slow unfolding of the mind is that of 
Montaigne. He says when speaking of his 
childhood, “My health was good, my dis¬ 
position was docile, I was notwithstanding 
so heavy, dull, and sleepy, that I could not 
be aroused from my indolence, even to play. 
My mind was slow and never moved, unless 
it was led. My understanding tardy, my 
invention idle, and amidst all an incredible 
want of memory.” So we learn from a 
study of the many illustrious cases of ar- 


Scientific Body Building 


127 


rested mental development in youth, to 
bear patiently with the retarded processes 
of growth, for many years after the normal 
period. Also it has been noticed that in 
certain lines of descent, there is a tendency 
to irregularity in the period of development, 
and that this irregularity may manifest 
itself either in precocity or retardation of 
mental growth. But we must hasten to 
evolve a plan of readjustment to meet these 
new demands in education. 

In exercises for producing mobility of 
spinal movements it is always best to begin 
with one of the balancing movements. If 
these important spinal muscles lose their 
normal irritability through immobility and 
rigidity, they respond more slowly to the 
stimuli of the will, and all the functions 
begin to languish and the organism becomes 
weaker. 

Statistics show that one out of every 
three of our young women leaving college, 
has some deviation of the spine, and there is 
also a large percentage who are flat-footed. 


128 


Brain Culture Through 


These appalling facts should make us abol¬ 
ish the present antiquated methods, revise 
the entire gymnastic curricula and see that 
trained specialists are placed in charge of our 
schools. 

It is of the greatest importance that these 
deviations be discovered and treated as 
early as possible. A spinal curvature can 
easily be detected by looking at the naked 
backs of the children. A thorough and 
rigid inspection of the spines of the children 
should be made in all the schools from time 
to time, and if all the useless dumb-bells and 
other “dumb” apparatus were thrown into 
the scrap heap, and a thorough training 
given in expression and a graceful carriage 
of the body, such training would save the 
brain waste now taking place, because of the 
present method of an outworn and anti¬ 
quated system. 

I have evolved a series of exercises for 
children from infancy to the kindergarten. 
Of especial importance in the kindergarten, 
is one that develops the lower limbs, and is 


Scientific Body Building 


129 


especially good for strengthening the articu¬ 
lation of the knees in weak children. Place 
the child flat on the back close to wall, so 
that the feet can touch the wall, then the 
teacher should see that the body is in a 
position rather close to the wall with the 
feet upraised and high in the air; place the 
feet against the wall, and have him push 
first with one foot, then with the other. The 
teacher should hold the shoulders of the 
child, so that there will be a decided re¬ 
sistance; in this way the spine and knees are 
strengthened. 

Also the teacher or parent may take hold 
of the feet and push gently but firmly, first 
one, and then the other, telling the child to 
resist as much as possible. It is truly re¬ 
markable how rapidly incipient spinal cur¬ 
vatures yield to the various specific move¬ 
ments. 

As Director of the Dramatic Art Depart¬ 
ment of many of our schools, I insisted upon 
a thorough and artistic training of the body 
preparatory to the dramatic training. As a 


130 


Brain Culture Through 


result, I noticed that the pupils were able 
to finish their work in half the usual period 
of time, that many of the physical disor¬ 
ders disappeared, and that the improvement 
in poise, carriage, voice and speech was in¬ 
deed remarkable. 

A young girl of about seventeen years 
attracted my attention. She seemed to 
have no neck, wore double vision glasses, and 
had a marked deviation of the spine. She 
entered a class for voice training and was 
suffering from obesity. Upon removing her 
collar I saw she had been wearing an alumi¬ 
num band around her neck. Someone had 
prescribed this for lengthening her neck. 
She also wore the scoliosis corset. I refused 
to accept her as a pupil unless she removed 
the corset and the aluminum appliance for 
the neck. In her case I could see at once, 
that the spinal deviation could be cured by 
specific training of the muscles of the spine. 
Within six months the slight deviation 
which was of muscular origin, had disap¬ 
peared. This young girl was dwarfed and 


Scientific Body Building 


131 


crippled in her activities by wearing braces 
that were unnecessary. Many young girls 
who have come to me for special training 
had been wearing orthopedic apparatus to 
immobilize the spine. Others also have 
been confined in bed, for weeks and months; 
in most of the cases after the apparatus had 
been removed, and specific movements 
given to develop the muscles on the oppo¬ 
site side of the curvature, the slight devia¬ 
tion was cured. The above case is only one 
of hundreds of cases that have come under 
my attention in the schools where I have 
directed the work. It is a hint in the di¬ 
rection of specific training for the home and 
school. Any apparatus that cripples the 
free movements of the body, any appli¬ 
ance to immobilize the spine, unless it be 
for diseases of the spine, will cripple and 
dwarf the child. 

I feel that two-thirds of the cases of spinal 
curvature can be cured by specific exercises 
for straightening and strengthening the 
spine. We should watch the poise of the 


132 


Brain Culture Through 


head carefully, the head must balance on 
the cervical vertebra, and not call upon 
the muscles of the neck to keep it from 
rolling off. These vertebrae in the cervi¬ 
cal and lumbar region serve as attachments 
for the muscles. Any diminished mobility 
in the spinal column should be treated imme¬ 
diately. 

On many occasions it is of importance to 
have a number of free standing movements, 
which can be taken either in the gymna¬ 
sium, at school or at home. A physician 
often gives this prescription: “Take more 
Exercise,” but when the patient asks what 
manner of exercise, the answer is generally, 
“Walk, Ride, or Drive/’ 

Walks in the fresh air should always be 
prescribed and never neglected, but the 
benefit produced is somewhat restricted. 
The movements given here, and in the 
chapter on posture work, give the most com¬ 
prehensive series of exercises, and in this 
respect, cannot be replaced by anything else. 
These movements are so chosen that they 


Scientific Body Building 


133 


can easily be taken and enjoyed by persons 
of all ages. A few of them have already 
been described. Some of them can at first 
only with difficulty be performed by chil¬ 
dren, and perhaps also by older persons who 
are quite unaccustomed to physical exer¬ 
cises, so that in this case these movements 
can be omitted to be gradually inserted af¬ 
terward. The first essential before begin¬ 
ning are a few deep inhalations, and a per¬ 
fect standing position. Fifteen or twenty 
minutes a day is often sufficient for this 
work. 

The close standing position arises from 
the Fundamental Standing Position by 
closing the feet so that they touch each 
other on the inner sides all along their 
length. After this position is taken, sway 
forward from the ankle as far as possible, 
hold and rise on the balls of the feet. 

The toe standing position arises from the 
Fundamental Standing Position by raising 
the body so that its weight rests entirely 
on the balls of the feet, but taking care that 


134 


Brain Culture Through 


the heels touch each other all the time. 

The knee bend standing position arises 
from the Fundamental Position by bending 
the legs at right angles in the knee joints, in 
doing which, the knees are carried outward 
and forward, in the direction of the feet. 

These exercises are a remedy for weak 
ankles. Many people who complain of 
weak ankles, are slovenly walkers who do 
not know how to use the muscles that con¬ 
trol the ankle such persons usually “turn” 
their ankles, even when walking on smooth 
ground, and in this way get sprains that lay 
them up for weeks. The strongest ankle is 
not strong enough to support the body, 
unless the muscles that control the ankle are 
employed. The trouble is that most people 
walk in a very careless manner, depending 
principally on the equilibrium of their 
bodies to keep them from falling, rather 
than the employment of the muscles of the 
body. They totter like feeble men, instead 
of walking with a springy, active step. 
Those who have had trouble with their 


Scientific Body Building 


135 


ankles should bear in mind that the muscles 
that support the ankle are probably strong 
enough, but they are not actively engaged 
while walking. In order to overcome this 
fault, one should when walking, keep his 
mind on the muscles of the foot, and try to 
cause them to act as much as possible. The 
practice of flat foot walking should be avoid¬ 
ed, instead the foot should be given as much 
motion as possible when making a stride. 
If this be done, in due time an active, springy 
walk will become an unconscious habit, and 
the muscles will always be on the alert to 
keep the ankles from turning. The practice 
of wearing high heels does much to weaken 
the muscles of the ankle, the result being 
that finally the muscles become weak and 
what is still worse, fail to act at all, the 
natural consequence is that a person loses 
all control of the muscles of the ankle, just 
as most of us have lost control of the mus¬ 
cles of the ear. 

In connection with this, let me state that 
it is dangerous to assist any muscle of the 


136 


Brain Culture Through 


body. The more a muscle is assisted, the 
weaker it gets and the less it responds to the 
motor nerves. If any part of the body is 
deformed, or has become weakened as the 
result of certain muscles failing to perform 
their duty, the muscles should be strength¬ 
ened, not helped. 

A movement well known as the knee up¬ 
ward bending is as follows: The left leg 
Is quickly bent forward so that a right or 
even an acute angle is formed at the hip 
joint, but still keeping the lower leg in a 
vertical position, and with the foot at right 
angles to the lower leg, or else hanging down 
freely. A short pause is made before the 
left leg is placed on the floor, and the right 
one lifted, and so on, while the body as a 
whole is well balanced all the time. 

Exercise for head flexion in the direction 
forward, backward, and to the sides, is an 
active movement in free standing gymnas¬ 
tics. In flexion forward and backward, re¬ 
member that the movement takes place in 
the vertebral column of the neck. 


Scientific Body Building 


137 


Head side flexion generally called head 
lateral falling, should be done as a proper 
flexion without twisting. For stiffness of 
the muscles and joints of the neck, which 
often occurs in rheumatic affections, these 
movements are given as passive when the 
pupil is best fixed lying on his back, the 
flexion being performed without resistance. 
I wish to lay a special emphasis on these 
neck muscle movements. 

A famous consulting ophthalmic surgeon, 
when consulted by an anxious mother in re¬ 
gard to her daughter’s eyes, would often 
reply, “It is not your daughter’s eyes that 
are affected, but the trouble is in her spine.” 
This is often the case, and that four-fifths of 
the number of children who have come to 
me for physical education have been helped, 
not only of defects of vision, but also of 
defective hearing, and nervous and digest¬ 
ive disorders. 

There are muscles between the head and 
trunk of the body, along the neck that are 
intimately associated with the base of the 


138 


Brain Culture Through 


skull, and are connected with the spinal 
column. To increase the functioning and 
mobility of these muscles, turn the head to 
the right as far as possible, and while holding 
it there, increase the tension of the muscles 
until they have been made rigid. Physical 
accomplishments bring their mental as well 
as physical equivalents, and should be con¬ 
sidered part of the mental education of 
girls and boys. 

Exercises which require a considerable 
number of conscious contractions of the 
muscles, followed by more or less complete 
relaxations, seem to contribute most to their 
general nutrition; also concentrating on the 
muscles which we wish to develop. A 
prominent Yale Professor demonstrated this 
by instructing a class of athletes to develop 
the right arm by physical exercise without 
mental concentration, and the left arm by 
physical exercise plus mental concentration 
on the muscles of that particular arm. In a 
given time the left arm was far stronger than 
the right. 


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To develop positive concentration, it is 
necessary to give movements that compel 
concentration. A difficult balancing move¬ 
ment invariably does this. Always in giv¬ 
ing a new movement, first pose the position 
of the exercise without telling what par¬ 
ticular muscle groups are involved. Then 
the pupils are to find out. The teacher 
should always ask questions in regard to the 
particular movement, in a class of begin¬ 
ners. If a movement is given which requires 
a brief rigidity of thigh or ankle muscles, 
there is usually but two or three pupils who 
can tell the specific muscles involved. 
However, at the end of the term each pupil's 
body has been so developed, so mentalized, 
that they can readily answer the questions. 

To increase this mentalization of the body 
give a running series of exercises, which re¬ 
quire conscious contractions so that in per¬ 
forming these movements they not only im¬ 
prove the quality and tone of bones and 
muscles, but they improve the health and 
strength of the entire system, including 


140 


Brain Culture Through 


stomach, brain, nerves, heart, lungs and 
pelvic organs, through the effects produced 
upon the respiration, circulation and di¬ 
gestion. 

The more the living body works, the more 
resistant and the fitter for work it becomes. 
It is a law of vital movement, that function 
strengthens the organ. 

I have chosen as a convincing illustration 
of a method of developing muscular control 
the case of the illustrious Sir Walter Scott: 
“At the age of eighteen months the eruption 
of his primary teeth was attended by con¬ 
siderable constitutional disturbance, includ¬ 
ing a high fever and paretic phenomena, re¬ 
sulting in exhaustion and lameness. In con¬ 
sequence of the lameness Scott was sent to 
the country and placed in charge of his 
grandfather, the shepherd of whom laid him 
beside the sheep. Scott, never reticent 
about his lameness, gave in an interesting 
autobiographic fragment the clinical history 
of his ailment: “I showed every sign of 
health and strength until I was about 


Scientific Body Building 


141 


eighteen months old. In the morning I was 
discovered to be affected with the fever 
that often accompanies the cutting of teeth, 
it held me three days. On the fourth when 
they went to bathe me, as usual, they dis¬ 
covered that I had lost the power of my 
right leg. There appeared to be no dis¬ 
coloration or sprain; blisters and other top¬ 
ical remedies were applied in vain. When 
the efforts of regular physicians had been ex¬ 
hausted without the slightest success my 
anxious parents, during the course of many 
years, eagerly grasped at every prospect of 
cure which was held out by Empirics, or 
ancient ladies or gentlemen who conceived 
themselves entitled to recommending va¬ 
rious remedies, many of which were suffi¬ 
ciently singular.” 

When he was four years old he was sent 
to Bath, where for a year he went through all 
the usual discipline of the pump room and 
baths, but without the least advantage to 
his lameness. He was treated by the 
celebrated Eighteenth Century Electrical 


142 


Brain Culture Through 


Quack, Graham, who made a great parade 
of electrical appliances. Scott was not 
benefited in the least by the magnetic 
touch of the quack or by the electricity. 

Scott’s maternal grandfather, Dr. Ruth¬ 
erford, professor of Medicine in the Univer¬ 
sity of Edinburg, sent him into the country 
to rough it and made efforts to call into ac¬ 
tion, the affected muscles by the will. This 
method consisted in placing bright objects 
or things that the boy especially desired in 
such a position that he could get them only 
by the most powerful efforts in which the 
affected member participated. By persist¬ 
ent use of this plan of “natural exertion” 
great gain resulted in will power over the 
muscles. They increased in size and range 
of action. The limb ultimately became 
quite useful, although always lame. This 
method of dominating the paralyzed and 
wasted muscles, by the forcible action of the 
will is possible only in cases in which vol¬ 
untary control is still preserved. Some re¬ 
sponse to the will may be present when the 


Scientific Body Building 


143 


faradic' or "'interrupted galvanic currents 
have no longer any power to execute mus¬ 
cular contraction. That this was the case 
with Scott is shown by the results of the 
method of “natural exertion.” This meth¬ 
od is invaluable in all similar cases. 


CULTIVATION OF THE WILL 












CHAPTER VI 

Cultivation of the Will 

The world’s greatest scientist, Elie Metch- 
nekoff, tells us in his “Disharmonies of 
Man,” that the will is the last of the human 
faculties to be developed* that the elemen¬ 
tary instincts, inclinations and desires are 
developed extremely strong in youth, an 
appalling thought for us all! 

The educators of today must seek the key 
to this sad tragic puzzle, and try by every 
means possible to solve this terrible “dis¬ 
harmony.” 

I protest against the current methods of 
teaching and studying ethics in our academic 
institutions, as a speculative, historical, ab¬ 
stract thing. 

The human will is a current of force which 
is to one’s individual life, like the helm to a 
ship. The basis of all education should be 
the development of the will. The genesis 


148 


Brain Culture Through 


of morality is preeminently the genesis of 
the will; its education ought to be the rein¬ 
forcement of the will. 

The will develops its own activity, as it 
apprehends its own powers. The will is the 
man, quite as much as the intellect. The 
real elixir of life is not to be found in the 
stomach, but in the mind, in the will to live. 
The working tools are consciousness and 
will. With these alone you build the “Tem¬ 
ple of Human Character.” 

Muscles are in a most intimate and pecul¬ 
iar sense the organs of the will, and I have 
found that by training flabby, weak muscles, 
the weak will is strengthened. 

Huxley says: “That man has had a 
liberal education who has been so trained 
in youth that his body is the ready servant 
of his will, and does with ease and pleasure 
all the work that as a mechanism, it is 
capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold, 
logic engine, with all its parts of equal 
strength, and in smooth working order, 
ready like a steam engine to be turned to 


Scientific Body Building 


149 


any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as 
well as forge the anchors of the mind; whose 
mind is stored with a knowledge of the great 
and fundamental truths of nature, and of 
the laws of her operations. 

“One who, no stunted a scetic, is full of life 
and fire, but whose passions are trained, to 
come to heel by a vigorous will; the servant 
of a tender conscience, who has learned to 
love all beauty, whether of nature or of art, 
to hate all vileness, to respect others as him¬ 
self ” 

This is the education we should give to our 
youth, but I ask what have our schools done 
to train the body to be the ready servant of 
the will? I feel that it will take at least 
three or four generations of earnest devotion 
to bodily culture, to offset the mischief 
wrought by two generations spent in the 
ceaseless mental grind demanded by our 
schools and colleges. 

The eminent Boris Sidis of Harvard Uni¬ 
versity says, in his “Philistine and Genius,” 
“I assume that you realize that what is req- 


150 


Brain Culture Through 


uisite is not mere routine, not mere desic¬ 
cated quasi-scientific college pseudagogics, 
and philistine normal school training, but 
more light on the problems of life; what you 
want is the education of genius. We regard 
the child’s mind as a vacant lot, and empty 
on it all our rubbish and refuse. We labor 
under the delusion that stories and fairy 
tales, myths and deceptions about life and 
man, are good for the child’s mind. Is it a 
wonder, on such a foundation, men can put 
up only shacks and shanties? Our schools 
only sterilize, petrify and embalm their 
minds, they are all pressed into one mould. 
The pedagogues have proved themselves in¬ 
competent to deal with the education of the 
young. They stifle talent, they stupefy the 
intellect, they paralyze the will, they sup¬ 
press genius, they benumb the faculties of 
our children.” 

The purpose of this course on Scientific 
Body Building is to call especial attention 
to the development and perfection of the 
most wonderful Temple in the world,—“The 


Scientific Body Building 


151 


Human Body,” an exquisite instrument, 
almost always neglected, and rarely ever 
tuned to the harmony of perfect health. 

If the world were but to realize the neces¬ 
sity of physical salvation, we might hope 
again for a physical renaissance. Such a 
rebirth the world has seen but twice, or 
perhaps thrice, and each was followed im¬ 
mediately by the two or three of the bright¬ 
est culture periods in history. 

Modem psychology sees in muscles or¬ 
gans of expression for all efferent processes. 
Beyond their demonstrable functions, every 
change of attention, and of psychic state, 
plays upon them unconsciously, modifies 
their tension in subtle ways, so that they 
may be called organs of thought and feeling 
as well as of will. 

Muscles are the vehicles of habituation, 
imitation, obedience, character, and even of 
manners and customs. The motor areas 
are closely related and largely identical with 
the psychic nature, and muscle culture de¬ 
velops brain centers as nothing else can. 


152 


Brain Culture Through 


Scientists now are urging that the motor 
education of the young should be made 
compulsory. 

Skill, endurance and perseverance may be 
called muscular virtues. Fatigue, caprice, 
ennui, restlessness, lack of control and poise 
may be called muscular faults. 

The revelations given us by discoveries 
in brain localization have thrown a new 
light upon the possibilities of muscle culture. 
The experimental research of scientists has 
resulted in a practical science of brain¬ 
building, by a systematic art of training, 
which causes an increase in the structural 
elements of the brain cells and whole nervous 
system. It would seem as if “to know thy¬ 
self ? scientifically, rather than metaphysi¬ 
cally, instead of being the first was destined 
to be among the latest of human achieve¬ 
ments. 

The training, developing and strength¬ 
ening of the will is the most important 
factor in school life, and yet the most vital, 
for the will is to the child or man, like the 


Scientific Body Building 


153 


iron spike which the sculptor puts in his 
statue; it impales and supports him. We 
begin with precise movements in balancing 
classes, then teach the various technical 
steps leading up to a graceful standing and 
sitting position, also reclining positions with 
which to show the relaxation in the body. 
It is really interesting how the children soon 
learn to love the expressional side of physical 
training. Then follow exercises for precise 
and coordinated movements of the various 
muscle groups; hence, children who are not 
trained from this standpoint grow up often 
faultily and imperfectly developed. 

These exercises are true intellectual gym¬ 
nastics and aid in stimulating the brain, 
just as the physical exercises strengthen the 
general health and quicken the growth of the 
body. 

After the child has acquired a certain un¬ 
conscious grace, separately prepared exer¬ 
cises are chosen to train and strengthen 
other muscular groups. I insist always up¬ 
on concentration on the movement to be 


154 


Brain Culture Through 


executed. These psycho-physical expres- 
sional movements, open up the roads for a 
harmoniously balanced brain; but beyond 
everything else, he has attained a certain 
control of his body, and the pupil experi¬ 
ences and enjoys the spiritual awakening 
which results when the mind is the master, 
and the muscles of the body the servants. 

The pupil has unconsciously acquired 
grace of movement and gesture, which 
makes his hands and his body more attract¬ 
ive and more responsive. Another marked 
result, is the refinement in the expression 
of face and bearing, which reveals the spirit 
taking command of the physical. Orderly, 
precise, coordinated movements, increase 
the child's nervous energy. 

To deprive the muscles of action is to 
inhibit the natural motor impulse and force 
them into a state of atrophy. Will power, 
like all other activities, is invigorated and 
developed through methodical exercises, and 
all the exercises are chosen with regard to 
stimulating and invigorating the motor 


Scientific Body Building 155 

centers; this trains the pupil to become his 
own master. 

Any child or grown person will be inter¬ 
ested in the illustration of the deltoid muscle 
as demonstrating the power of the will. 

An ordinary muscular man can readily 
lift at arm’s length a fifty pound weight, the 
arm being twenty inches long, and is a lever 
of the third class, that is with a sustaining 
fulcrum which in this case has its lifting at¬ 
tachment about an inch from the point of 
rest, at the shoulder joint, (so that to lift a 
fifty pound weight at the hand, being the 
long end of the lever), required a lifting 
force of one thousand pounds at the fulcrum, 
the point at which the muscle is attached. 

It is evident then, that a muscle stimu¬ 
lated by vitality and controlled by the mind, 
has a lifting force of one thousand pounds, 
and this same muscle removed from the 
body, would not sustain a fifty pound 
weight, without being torn asunder. In the 
first case, it is living matter subject to will 
power, in the second case, it is dead matter, 
with only a cohesive power. 


156 


Brain Culture Through 


Parents and teachers would do well to 
cite this illustration to their pupils; the very 
thought of the power of the will on the 
muscle is stimulating to the young minds, 
and is also fertile with suggestions in many 
other ways. 

The training of the body in its highest 
sense is to make of it an instrument of ex¬ 
pression only for the use of the soul, to 
teach our youth that they can gather from 
triumphs over the body a new conscious¬ 
ness of the divinity of the spirit. The prep¬ 
aration of the young to meet temptation is 
of the first importance in education. Using 
the word “temptation” in its usual sinister 
sense, the main purpose of the training of 
character is to make the pupil “tempta¬ 
tion-proof”; this it seems to me is the crux 
of the whole problem of Education, and I say 
from the weight of wide and varied experi¬ 
ence, this can be done in scientific, physical 
education. 

We educate children or adults by increas¬ 
ing their neuro-muscular control. It se- 


Scientific Body Building 


157 


cures for them grace and ease of motion, and 
adds to their mental power by placing the 
muscles under the control of the will. 

Occasionally a man under some sudden 
impulse falls into a condition of extreme 
violence, and being unable to control him¬ 
self, commits acts of which he repents im¬ 
mediately afterward. It is the custom to 
say that at such times the brute has 
awakened in the man, probably some nerv¬ 
ous mechanism from a remote ancestor has 
come into action at the call of stimulation 
owing to the lack of proper development of 
the will. Unless the character is trained in 
childhood, youth is not prepared to cope 
with the coiled temptations of later years. 
The moral compass is disturbed and unsat¬ 
isfactory. It is made untrue in an instant, 
as the magnetic needle of a ship is deflected 
when it passes near great mountains of iron 
ore. 

It is well for a young boy to realize that 
life is not a palace car, with soft cushioned 
seats, where he has but to pay for his ticket 


158 


Brain Culture Through 


and some one else does all the rest. , He 
should not feel that he is a mere passenger, 
he is the engineer and the train is his Life. 

The training of manual work, the keen 
discipline in learning any one of the skilled 
trades, is the schooling needed above all for 
the city boys, not only because it is going to 
make efficient men of them, but because it 
is also a necessity to their bodies. He must 
get concentration and effectiveness of work, 
and the will to overcome difficulties. 

No teacher of wide and varied experience 
can have the hardihood to say that we talk 
too much nowadays about the social ques¬ 
tion. I feel that all the sad tragic loss 
could be avoided if boys and girls were ed¬ 
ucated for life, instead of for college en¬ 
trance examinations. When once the sa¬ 
cred powers, now confined in the prison of 
perverted instincts, of unnecessary suffering, 
shall have been liberated, then not only the 
forces at present wasted, will serve to bene¬ 
fit all the rest of life, but also the great 
spiritual forces, will be dedicated to the 
service of humanity. 


Scientific Body Building 


159 


A mere accident of circumstance often 
condemns to criminal careers youths capable 
of the highest service to society, and for a 
brief season of temperamental outbreak, and 
obstreperousness, exposes them to all the 
infamy to which ignorant and cruel public 
opinion condemns all those who have once 
been detected on the wrong side of the invis¬ 
ible and arbitrary line of rectitude. 

The heart of criminal psychology is here, 
and it is a stroke of irony from the very seat 
of education to persist in teaching ethics 
as a speculative historical abstract thing. 
Our attitude towards all the aberrations of 
life and conduct, described by such terms as 
immorality and crime, idiocy, imbecility 
and insanity, is being rapidly and radically 
changed. Lombroso was the first to empha¬ 
size the relations of all these abnormalities, 
and to point out their interconnections. 

It is true that public opinion is not yet 
prepared to consider as mentally diseased 
individuals who are various types of perver¬ 
sion with intellectual resourcefulness, but 


160 


Brain Culture Through 


alienists should work against such miscon¬ 
ceptions, and in the name of justice correct 
legal errors, where responsibility is recog¬ 
nized in individuals who are not responsible 
for their crimes. 

Professor Way in his studies upon the 
physical condition of young criminals has 
found that in the majority of instances 
there appears to be some neural defect, 
mostly in the nature of depletion, which he 
believes contributes to alienate the moral 
feelings of the individual, proving that 
viciousness has a physiological basis, so that 
we may gather that the crime is very often 
due to neural pathology rather than to 
moral culpability. 

Above all, these children are adolescent, 
they are in the most critical period of their 
lives, they are undergoing a new birth, they 
are throwing off the chrysalis of childhood, 
they are awakening to the things of the soul, 
to the infinite, and to open their souls to 
poetry. It is this period of adolescence, the 
marvel and mystery of which we are only 


Scientific Body Building 


161 


beginning to comprehend, which with proper 
education would contain the answer to some 
of our most perplexing questions, problems 
as yet only dimly realized. 

A few experts in psychiatry say that mus¬ 
cular play is useful in many forms of insan¬ 
ity. I feel that an organism completely 
nourished not only in its brain work and 
muscles, but in the finest ramifications of 
its nervous system, would be but for morbid 
hereditary disposition, a well equilibrated 
organism. Every vice, which reduces to a 
disequilibration, thus reduces scientifically 
to the more or less incomplete nutrition of 
some deeply seated organ. 

Young men and women trained to perfect 
muscular control, would realize in life that 
when personal happiness conflicts with any 
great human ideal, the right to claim such 
happiness is as nothing compared with the 
privilege of resigning it. 

I regard the following exercises as ex¬ 
tremely helpful in acquiring muscular con¬ 
trol. 


162 


Brain Culture Through 


First, a correct standing position and 
complete relaxation, then bring the arms 
straight up and in front of the head, take a 
deep inhalation as you start the arms in 
outgoing circles, inhaling as you make the 
circle outward, exhaling as you complete 
the circle, and bring up to the starting posi¬ 
tion. Repeat this exercise slowly, rhyth¬ 
mically, concentrating on the inhalation and 
exhalation until you feel the expansion, 
contraction and relaxation of the muscles 
involved. 

Extend right foot forward diagonally, 
knee slightly flexed, but firm, then let the 
torso dip down diagonally as far as comfort¬ 
able, then suddenly twirl (as it were) the 
upper part of the body, from the hip joint, 
landing on the left foot. 

Take the breathing exerc.se. This should 
always precede these balancing movements, 
reverse position of the body, standing on the 
left foot, then extend left arm in a diagonal 
position, hold the right foot up on a line with 
the waist line, then turn torso quickly to- 


Scientific Body Building 


163 


ward right side, landing on the right foot. 
This exercise I regard as a panacea for most 
of the nervous debilities incident to school 
life. 

The wonderful performances given by 
acrobats and jugglers in vaudeville have 
always been regarded principally for the 
amusement they afforded, but since I real¬ 
ized the wonderful results of the various 
balancing exercises in my pupils, it has sug¬ 
gested to me the broader value in the work, 
also its almost unlimited possibilities. I 
feel that they will be used as a cure for such 
serious maladies as locomotor ataxia, and 
similar diseases involving the loss of control 
of muscles and nerves. 

Medical men in this country and in Ger¬ 
many have very recently been following 
these acrobatic feats with the greatest in¬ 
terest. Representing as they do the ut¬ 
most development of coordination between 
brain, nerves and muscles, they naturally 
suggest new methods of treatment in cases 
where lack of that coordination is the prin¬ 
cipal symptom. 


164 


Brain Culture Through 


The human nervous system is a good deal 
like a big telephone exchange, only infinitely 
more intricate. In a normal person, ideas 
are received through the brain, correspond¬ 
ing to the central exchange and the particu¬ 
lar muscles, which the mind wishes to bring 
into action, are communicated with by 
means of the network of nerves, which cross 
and recross each other, through the tissues 
of the body, and correspond in a way to the 
telephone wires. If anything goes wrong 
with either the exchange, or the wires com¬ 
municating with it, the whole system is de¬ 
ranged. 

The big nervous trunk line of the human 
telephone system, is the spinal column; 
when this degenerates as it does, in cases of 
locomotor ataxia, and similar diseases, the 
human telephone system is put out of work¬ 
ing order. A person suffering from loco¬ 
motor ataxia, desiring to walk along a chalk 
line finds it impossible to do so. His mind 
forwards the message along the nervous 
telephone wires the same as a normal per- 


Scientific Body Building 


165 


son’s, but somewhere in the spine the mes¬ 
sage goes awry, and the leg which was sup¬ 
posed to move forward, refuses to move, or 
perhaps moves sideways or backward. 

One of the principal symptoms of loco¬ 
motor ataxia, known as the “Branch-Rum- 
berg Symptom,” is the inability of the pa¬ 
tient to maintain his equilibrium, when his 
eyes are closed. Stand him up against a 
wall, then tell him to close his eyes, and he 
will invariably sway and fall. Just as the 
person suffering from locomotor ataxia 
lacks equilibrium, so the trained acrobat 
excels in it. The latter’s brain, nerves and 
other organs work in such complete accord 
or coordination, that he is able to accomplish 
feats, which would be utterly out of the 
question for the normal, but untrained man. 

There are many exercises, which will fol¬ 
low in later sequence, which I believe, will 
establish new records of muscular and nerv¬ 
ous coordination. It is a well known fact, 
that many of our famous neurologists are 
prescribing systematic exercises for the 
various nervous disorders. 


166 


Brain Culture Through 


Stand against a wall, take a deep inhala¬ 
tion, try and make as much of the spine as 
is possible touch the wall. Do this first 
with open eyes, then with closed eyes. Then 
stand with heels about three inches removed 
from the wall, bending slowly forward from 
hip joint, exhaling deeply, then slowly un¬ 
fold to rising position, inhaling to rising 
movement. 

I find that most deviations of the spine 
have a muscular source, and arise from a 
predominant action of the muscles, which 
draw the vertebrae in a given direction. In 
such cases I begin with exercises for creat¬ 
ing mobility of bearing; training a conscious¬ 
ness of movement into the muscles and 
joints. Then I proceed with exercises that 
give a forced flexion of the dorsal part of the 
spine. In a short time the spine assumes a 
normal position, and many of the nerve de¬ 
fects soon disappear. I believe that we are 
just as young as our spines are supple. 

The case of E. H. Harriman is still fresh 
in our minds, it was the principal topic of 


Scientific Body Building 


167 


medical circles of Vienna, not only on ac¬ 
count of the prominence of the patient, but 
because of the peculiar phases of the disease. 
Cases of such extreme rigidity of the verte¬ 
bral column are generally caused through 
rheumatic or chronic inflammation of the 
joints of the spine, or of the muscles sur¬ 
rounding them. The disease attacks the 
patient slowly, and it is generally some 
years before the whole vertebral column is 
rigid. 

In arranging the physical balance sheet, 
so that the highest possible enhancement of 
life will be possible, it is necessary to first 
look well and carefully to the spine. In the 
foundation of our educational system are 
flaws which must be eliminated. It is time 
for us to realize that education does not 
simply mean to minister certain doses of 
writing, arithmetic, physics or history, but 
to educate man as a compound being, mind 
and body. 

We must revise our school curriculum and 
especially in the Department of Physical 


168 


Brain Culture Through 


Training provide a more thorough and scien¬ 
tific training of the body, design a system of 
exercises that will give more scope to the 
comprehensive motor activities denied in 
the ordinary school curriculum. 

The physical training must seek first the 
achievement of postural and corrective and 
recreative values, as well as training to 
quick and definite reactions. Growth, de¬ 
velopment, and functional activities are 
considered in their physiological relations, 
and from their training, health, mental and 
moral qualities result. As pride in personal 
appearance distinguishes cultivated people, 
it is the intention that other resultants 
shall be correct habits of bearing, carriage 
and poise in address. The day is long pass¬ 
ed when physical development meant large 
muscles. The measure of the biceps is not 
the measure of the man. 

One would infer from the physical culture 
advertisements, that the great desideratum 
of exercise, was to make a burly frame. 
Physical education should give one a superb 


Scientific Body Building 


169 


body, with not one overdeveloped or under¬ 
developed muscle. It should develop a 
beautiful, refined body, not refined in pro¬ 
portion only, but in presence and bearing 
it should do splendid work beneath the ribs, 
with the lungs, heart and stomach. 

Nerve and brain measure more than 
muscle, the benefits of scientific training, 
and such training should put a man or 
woman into condition to do his best work 
to the full sense of buoyant life. Well de¬ 
veloped muscles go a long way, of course, 
but the size of the muscle is not the measure 
of the brain. The big hulky dray horse is a 
stupid animal compared with the alert 
sinewy racer. 

An educational system should have two 
objects, first to make a sound and healthy 
body; second, the development of the will 
and the formation of character through 
mental and moral discipline. The Greeks 
were wiser than we. They saw that the 
proper foundation for a healthy mind and 
mental training,was the training of the body. 


170 


Brain Culture Through 


The Greek ideals of beauty, thus developed 
the body only for the sake of the soul. 

History tells us, that one-half of all their 
education was devoted to the body and 
Galton says, that they as much excelled us, 
as we do the African negro. They held, and 
I believe they were right, that if physical 
perfection was cultivated, moral and mental 
excellence would follow. I believe that the 
strongest nations of the future will be those 
which give the most intelligent care to the 
body, the best body implies the best brain. 
The Greeks could hardly conceive bodily 
apart from psychic education, and with 
them physical was for the sake of mental 
training. 

As the Greek games were in honor of the 
gods, so now the body should be trained to 
better glorify God, and regimen, chastity, 
and temperance, are given a new impetus, a 
fore-gleam of how sweet the glory of achieve¬ 
ment. 

In studying the exercises of the ancient 
Greeks, I find that balance occupied the 


Scientific Body Building 


171 


most prominent place. Balance and breath¬ 
ing exercises. Does it now seem that the 
ancient Greeks thousands of years ago fore¬ 
knew something of present day scientific 
research, as to the specific relations of brain 
and muscle? 

The Greeks considered the human body 
the dwelling place of the Divine Spirit. 
They did not work for extreme development, 
they worked for beauty of form and balance, 
and out of their love for the human body, 
grew their arts and they degenerated only, 
when they turned to gluttony. 

The adoration of human nature by the 
Greeks appeared in plastic art and was the 
cause of its excellence. The ideal of art was 
to copy in the most faithful way the most 
perfect example of the human body, and 
Greek artists made measurements of the 
body so accurately that modern science has 
confirmed their chief results. As sculpture 
most completely realized the Greek ideal of 
the human body, it became almost a nation¬ 
al art among the Greeks, and just as Greek 


172 


Brain Culture Through 


art aimed at the preservation of the body of 
man, so Greek philosophy proclaimed the 
nobility of all human qualities and incul¬ 
cated the doctrine of a harmonious develop¬ 
ment of all sides of human nature. 

Of all people that ever lived, the Greeks 
knew best what breath meant both in exer¬ 
cise and in battle, and therefore the Queen 
of the Air becomes to them the Queen of 
Bodily Strength. The Grecian poets have 
given us beautiful thoughts in regard to 
breathing, in fact, the literature of the most 
cultured nations teems with it. Note how 
Shakespeare expresses this thought in “As 
You Like It,” where Orlando says: 

“Yes! I beseech your grace 
I am not well breathed.” 

Now this giving of strength by the air is 
mechanical as well as chemical, for you can¬ 
not strike a good blow, but with your chest 
full, and in hand-to-hand fighting it is not 
the muscle that fails first, it is the breath; 
the longest breathed will on the average be 
the victor, not the strongest. 


Scientific Body Building 


173 


This brief outline of the work of the an¬ 
cient Greeks is a sad commentary on our 
educational system, for we have all along 
been working at the top and neglecting the 
foundation. In our strenuous preoccupa¬ 
tion with the intellectual development, we 
have forgotten the body. Statistics show us 
that 75 per cent out of every hundred young 
women who enter the university have curv¬ 
ature of the spine, and 20 per cent are flat 
footed, and yet it is a well known fact to 
Body Building specialists that these de¬ 
fects are directly due to bad posture, both 
in standing and sitting, and can easily be 
cured by specific exercises. 

The child who habitually leans backward 
on the heels, is degenerating physically as 
well as psychically. He reveals an immo¬ 
bility that is not conducive to change or 
development or expression, he is (strange as 
it may appear to the unthinking), under¬ 
mining his will power, and creating, what is 
just as dangerous, an obstinate will, be¬ 
cause there is no poise in the body. Whereas 


174 


Brain Culture Through 


the child who is trained to stand solidly on 
the foot, feeling the weight on the ball of 
the foot, with a reasonable flexibility of 
ankle movement, will always be more bal¬ 
anced mentally. 

Leg exercises have a decided value in the 
development of will power, so always lay 
stress upon basal movements, as not only 
compensating, but because they are of high 
therapeutic value, against the disorders of 
the accessory system. It constitutes a fine 
cure for fidgets and tense states, and directly 
develops poise, control and psycho-physical 
equilibrium. 

The finer and accessory muscles are those 
of the hand, tongue, lips, face and articulat¬ 
ing organs. These also extend into a longer 
and diversified series, as those used in writ¬ 
ing, talking and piano playing. They are 
represented by small and more numerous 
muscles where functions develop later in 
life, and represent a higher standard of evo¬ 
lution. It is these fine muscles that are so 
liable to disorder in the many automatisms 


Scientific Body Building 175 

we see in school children, especially if ex¬ 
cited or fatigued. 

General paralysis usually begins in the 
higher levels. By breaking these down, so 
that the first symptom of its insidious and 
never interrupted progress is inability to 
execute the more exact and delicate move¬ 
ments of tongue, or hand or both. Starting 
with the latest evolutionary level, it is a 
devolution that may work downward, till 
most of the fundamental activities are lost 
before death. 

It must be remembered that a child or 
man is the sum total of his movements or 
tendencies to move. Nature and heredity 
chiefly determine the basal and education, 
and culture decides the evolution and de¬ 
velopment of the finer and accessory parts 
of our activities. 

The training of the entire accessory sys¬ 
tem is of vital importance, for the develop¬ 
ment of the individual as well as for the de¬ 
velopment of all the arts of expression. 
These smaller muscles might almost be 


176 


Brain Culture Through 


called organs of thought, their tension is 
modified with the faintest change of soul, 
such as is seen in accent, inflection, facial 
expression, handwriting, and many forms 
of so called mind-reading, which in fact is al¬ 
ways muscle reading. 

If you wish to double your child’s inher¬ 
ent potentiality, cultivate variability. The 
training of variability is the most precious 
part of a fine education; especially is this 
true in physical education. Make the law 
in the classes that of exquisite grace and 
freedom. Mme. Bernhardt tells us that in 
the simple greeting of a good-morning, that 
there is not one way of saying it, but a thou¬ 
sand ways. Remember that in the very 
simple thing of the poise of the body, re¬ 
laxation should express itself from every 
joint, and that rigidity like sclerosis, in¬ 
duration of tissue means decay of originality 
and expression. 

In the simple task of the schoolroom, 
muscle control should be insisted upon dur¬ 
ing the writing period, the body should be 


Scientific Body Building 


177 


relaxed, and no muscles allowed to exhaust 
themselves in useless grimaces simply be¬ 
cause one is writing. I visited a school re¬ 
cently during the writing lesson, and nearly 
all the girls and boys were making the 
weirdest grimaces, with almost each move¬ 
ment of the pen. 

I wonder if it is possible to estimate the 
nervous energy lost in this way. Nothing 
but differentiated muscle control will cure 
this lamentable waste of energy. This is 
seen also in the day laborer of low intelli¬ 
gence with a vocabulary of a few hundred 
words, who can hardly move each of his 
fingers without moving others, or all of 
them; who cannot move his brows or cor¬ 
rugate his forehead at will, whose inflection 
is very monotonous. All this illustrates a 
condition of arrest, or atrophy of this finer 
accessory system of muscles, and psychology 
teaches us, that if there is an arrest of these 
fine muscular activities, there is also an 
arrest of brain center activities. 

To learn to conserve our energies! To 


178 Scientific Brain Culture 

learn to revere the amazing stupendous 
force which has carried us from a cell in the 
ooze, to thinking manhood and womanhood! 
Body and mind and soul all evenly ignited 
by the fire of a reverent spiritual control! 


SIMPLE EXERCISES FOR THE 
HOME, OFFICE OR 
SCHOOLROOM 















CHAPTER VII 


Simple Exercises for the Home, Office or 
Schoolroom 

Let us take the schoolroom first, for while 
all reform should begin in the home, we find 
that most of it is left for the schoolroom. 
Let us suppose the teacher has a class of 
fifty pupils. She should never have more 
than ten in a class. If the aisles of the 
schoolroom are at least two feet wide, 
(which they should be) the pupils should 
stand in the aisles in rows, for the daily ex¬ 
ercise. 

Open the windows so as to be sure of 
fresh air. The first order should be “Rise, 
stand in perfect poise” (allow no shuffling 
of the feet nor sunken chests), and look to 
the poise of the head. Many children, owing 
to slight spinal deviation, carry their heads 
either to one side or the other. This must 
be corrected in the schoolroom, and not left 


182 


Brain Culture Through 


to the once a week or twice a week visit to 
the gymnasium; in fact, most of the gym¬ 
nasiums pay no attention to this very grave 
defect. 

When the correct position is insisted upon, 
all of the parts of the body at once fall into 
place. The second command should be to 
“sway from the ankle joints, forward and 
backward.” 

Third command. “Lips closed, inhale 
through nostrils, inhale as you sway for¬ 
ward, exhale as you sway backward.” 

Fourth command. “Raise the hands di¬ 
rectly over the head, and as high as possible, 
palms of the hands facing to the front, and 
the elbows close to the side of the head. In 
this position sway toward the right, inhaling, 
bend back, and to the left, exhaling, and 
finish exercise by bringing the hands up over 
the head to the starting position.” 

In this position the pupil is ready for the 
following: 

Fifth command. “Without bending the 
elbows, bring the hands downward, in front 


Scientific Body Building 


183 


towards the feet, as far as can be comforta¬ 
bly done, generally at first about as low as 
the knee, taking care to keep the knees 
themselves absolutely straight, if possible 
bowed even back, then return the hands 
high over the head.” Each exercise should 
be repeated about six times. After a week, 
or at most two, the hands are gradually 
brought lower down, until they reach the 
floor,, and until the entire palm can 
touch the floor. This exercise will remove 
all tendency towards holding the knees 
slightly bent, and so causing that weak, 
shaky and sprung look about the knees, so 
common among school children, to give way 
to a correct and graceful position. 

Sixth command. Is one of the “sitting 
up” exercises, used daily at West Point, and 
should be taught daily in our public schools. 
“Stand in perfect poise, with the body ab¬ 
solutely vertical, raise the hands above the 
head, elbows straight, till the thumbs touch, 
then never bending body or knees a hair’s 
breadth, and keeping the elbows unbent, 


184 


Brain Culture Through 


bring the hands slowly down, not in front 
this time, but at the sides just above the 
knees, the little finger and the inner edge 
of the hand alone touching the leg, and the 
palms facing straight in front.” Now no¬ 
tice how difficult it is to warp the shoulders 
forward, even an inch. The chest is out, the 
head and neck are erect, the shoulders are 
held low, the back vertical and hollowed in a 
little, and the knees straight. “Carry the 
hands slowly back through the same lines, 
till again high over the head. Then bring 
them down to the sides again.” Nine of 
these movements should be taken three 
times a day the first week, and as many as 
will not fatigue unduly afterward. 

These exercises should be carried out in 
the schoolroom at four different periods dur¬ 
ing the day. I find that five minutes for 
each physical period relieves the uncon¬ 
scious tensions, keeps the joints supple, tends 
to give a graceful carriage to the body, and 
stimulates the brain centers by relieving 
the congestion due to unhealthy mental 


Scientific Body Building 


185 


strain. It is a fact that while specific exer¬ 
cises have been given to develop all the mus¬ 
cles, yet you will find many pupils who still 
carry themselves awkwardly, even in a 
slouchy and slovenly manner; the last men¬ 
tioned exercise is directly intended to ob¬ 
viate this. It is one of the best exercises 
not only to give strength, but a fine, erect 
carriage, as the whole frame is so held that 
every vital organ has free scope and play¬ 
room, and their healthier and more vigorous 
action is directly encouraged. 

Seventh command. “Perfect standing 
position, neck and head erect with the heels 
together and the toes turned slightly out¬ 
ward. Raise the heels slowly off the floor, 
the soles and toes remaining firm on the 
floor, sustaining the entire weight. When 
the heels are as high as possible, hold them 
there a moment, then lower again, till the 
whole foot is on the floor, then rise as be¬ 
fore, and so repeat a few times daily.” 
This exercise will soon express its benefits 
in the size, shape and strength of the feet 


186 


Brain Culture Through 


and calves, and especially so in the grace 
and springiness of the step itself. 

Eighth command. “Correct standing po¬ 
sition with the arms akimbo, and the feet 
as before; now bend the knees so as to stoop 
six or eight inches, then rise to the perpen¬ 
dicular, stoop again, and continue this six 
times, the feet never leaving the floor.” 
This straightens the knees, while the front 
of the thighs gets the heaviest part of the 
work, though the leg below the knee is doing 
a good share, and yet the feet have not left 
their particular position on the floor. Then 
the pupil should stand with the right foot 
advanced above twelve or fifteen inches, 
suddenly rising on the toes, give a slight 
spring, and throw the left foot to the front, 
and do this at least seven times a day, during 
the first week, and increase as the muscles 
become strengthened. 

This is a specific exercise for strengthening 
the thighs. Correct standing position with 
the knees together, do not raise the heels at 
all, but stoop down slowly as low as possible, 


Scientific Body Building 


187 


bending the knees greatly, the back, how¬ 
ever, being held straight all the while. 
There is no better exercise for quickly giving 
size and strength to the thighs, yet scarcely 
any muscles in the whole body are more 
needed or used for ordinary walking. 

Ninth command. Includes an exercise 
which calls into use the muscles across the 
abdomen, stimulating the stomach and other 
vital organs directly in their functions. 
“Correct standing position, raise the foot in 
front as high as the left knee, keeping the 
right knee unbent, hold the right foot ten 
seconds, then drop it again, repeat fully 
seven times, do the same thing with the left 
foot.” In a way we may reverse this move¬ 
ment by thrusting out the right and left 
foot, high behind, and so continue giving 
each foot its equal work to do. The under 
thigh, hip and loin, are now in action, and 
being symmetrically developed, the pupil 
will find how much easier it is to run, than 
it used to be, and also that it has become 
more natural to stand erect. 


188 


Brain Culture Through 


Tenth command. “Correct standing po¬ 
sition, knees firm, extend the arms out at the 
sides, at arm’s length, close each hand firmly, 
and while inhaling deeply, make large cir¬ 
cles at the sides of the body.” 

Eleventh command. “Clasp the hands 
together over the head, now turn them over 
until the palms are upward or turned to¬ 
wards the ceiling, and straighten the elbows 
until the hands are as high over the head as 
you can reach, and run quickly around the 
room, in this position.” In this exercise it 
will be found that no apparatus whatever is 
necessary to get quite a large amount of ex¬ 
ercise for the shoulders. In this exercise 
there is a fine stretching apart of the ribs, 
an opening up of the chest, the drawing in of 
the stomach and abdomen will be found to 
correct incipient chest weakness, half breath¬ 
ing, and any tendency towards indigestion. 

Twelfth command. Have the class form 
around the sides of the room, standing three 
feet apart, and about two feet from the 
wall. “Place the hands against the wall, 


Scientific Body Building 


189 


just at a level with and opposite to the 
shoulders. Now keeping the heels all the 
time on the floor and the neck back against 
the collar, let the body settle gradually for¬ 
ward until the chest touches the wall, keep¬ 
ing the elbows pretty near to the sides, the 
knees never bending a particle, and the face 
held up, the eyes looking at the ceiling di¬ 
rectly overhead, now push slowly off from 
the wall, until the elbows are again straight 
and the body back at vertical.” Repeat 
this and continue nine times for each half 
of the day. 

For expanding and deepening the chest, 
helping to poise the head and neck so that 
they will remain exactly where they belong 
in an erect position, and for giving the main 
part of the upper back arm a difficult bit of 
work to do, this will be a splendid exercise. 
Any flat or hollow-chested person will im¬ 
prove from the very first, if he persists in 
this exercise until the chest is properly de¬ 
veloped. It also develops the back of the 
arms and spinal column. 


190 


Brain Culture Through 


These splendid exercises call for no appa¬ 
ratus, nothing save a floor to stand on and 
a wall to push against, and this is all that 
1 have found necessary to develop half- 
built bodies into symmetrically developed, 
well-poised, perfect bodies. They consti¬ 
tute a variety of exercises, not only safe and 
simple, but inexpensive, which can be read¬ 
ily adopted in any school. If they are fol¬ 
lowed up faithfully, they cannot fail to 
bring a decided and most welcome improve¬ 
ment in the shape and capacity of nearly 
all of the muscles, while they give an erect 
and healthy carriage, and would send the 
children back to their studies much fresher 
and brighter for the temporary mental rest. 

In addition to these exercises, the teach¬ 
ers must insist upon the value of an erect 
position in school hours, whether the pupil 
be standing or sitting, and we should soon 
notice the splendid improvement in making 
the crooked girls and boys straight, and so 
lessening their chance of going through life, 
either with delicate throats, or weak lungs, 


Scientific Body Building 


191 


but one more important thing is taking 
long, slow, deep breaths in through the nose. 
There should be, of course, broad, comfort¬ 
able school chairs, and the pupils should be 
taught never to sit on half of the seat, or 
on the edge of it, but far back and on the 
whole of it, and never allow the pupils to 
cross their legs, because it is one of the most 
serious causes of curvature of the spine. 

The teacher can work marked and per¬ 
manent physical benefit to every pupil 
under her charge, by daily and steadily fol¬ 
lowing up most or any of the above exer¬ 
cises. These exercises strengthen the pos¬ 
tures, whether sitting or standing. When a 
teacher insists on having her children erect 
for several hours out of the twenty-four, and 
makes plain to each one by example in the 
perfect poise of her own body, the value of 
being straight and the self-respect it tends 
directly to encourage, there need be no fear 
that the pupils will grow crooked again. 

It is strange that it is in the school, be¬ 
cause of that instrument of torture, the 


192 


Brain Culture Through 


school seat and desk, that the grave danger 
of warping, twisting and crooking is done, 
and hence in the schoolroom of all places, 
must this serious damage be undone. Such 
school exercises with outdoor life, combine 
to tone us up, to invigorate our bodies, and 
keep off either mental or physical exhaustion 
and disease. It ought to produce health, 
symmetry, a good carriage, buoyant spirits, 
and a splendid share of nerve and agility. 

The teachers of this country, it may be 
said, hold and mould the future in their 
hands. If they rightly understood their 
work, if they could but realize how easy it is, 
with a little judicious daily work to pre¬ 
vent or remove incipient deformity, to 
strengthen the weak, to form in the pupils 
the habit of sitting and standing erect, to 
add to the general strength, to freshen the 
minds, and to do good in various other ways. 

We should not then see, as we often do 
now, large classes of pupils, stiffened by 
long years of hard overwork of some mus¬ 
cles, with others dormant and undeveloped. 


Scientific Body Building 


193 


It is during the important years of the ele¬ 
mentary school life, that the lives of the 
school children can be shaped, not morally 
or mentally only, but physically as well. 
For moulding the body is as important, as 
moulding the mind. We find little bones 
that stick out when they have no business 
to, spines will curve and stay curved per¬ 
manently, dorsal curvature, lateral curva¬ 
ture, double curvature and so on. How 
little is done in this particular to remedy 
this growing evil. The one shoulder a little 
higher than the other, will not be half so 
hard to restore to place in childhood, as 
when stiffened in its position, by long years 
of bad habits, which never should have been 
allowed a day. If the chest is weak and 
flat, or pigeon-breasted, now is the time to 
remove the defect. 

Build the body in childhood, train the 
chest and shoulders to their proper place, 
teach the children to sit and stand, and walk 
erect, develop the back with full and shapely 
muscles, get the feet used to the work of 


194 


Brain Culture Through 


supporting the body properly, and the same 
boy or girl who would have grown up half 
built, ungraceful, ill at ease and far from 
strong, will now ripen into a manly, vigorous, 
well knit man or woman of sound mind and 
body, familiar with the possibilities of that 
body, with what is the right use and what 
the abuse of it, and knowing well how to 
keep it in that condition, which shall enable 
him or her to accomplish their life work in 
the full use of their powers. 

For hundreds of years the mental train¬ 
ing of our youth has been a matter of careful 
thought and study, and no effort is spared to 
obtain the best advantages of all the teach¬ 
ing of the past. The brains of the children 
have been kept under continual pressure, 
and yet that which would have helped them 
most at every step of their progress, and 
which would have fitted them to stand with 
ease, what now in a few years so often breaks 
them down, has been totally ignored, in 
other words we have built the top and neg¬ 
lected the foundation. 


Scientific Body Building 


195 


Another serious defect in the gymnasium 
work in the schools, is that too little regard 
is had for the vast differences in individuals, 
most of whom need much personal pre¬ 
scription. It is said that when the famous 
Hemingway Gymnasium was completed at 
Harvard in 1879, there was serious criticism 
to the effect that “unless this gymnasium 
had more intelligent management, than its 
predecessor had had, or that many of the 
gymnasiums of the land had, it might just 
as well have been a highly polished station¬ 
ary engine without steam.” This criticism 
will still apply to many of the gymnasiums 
of 1912. 

It is in specific attention to the defects of 
the spines of the children that gymnasium 
methods are sadly lacking, in which appa¬ 
ratus may be distinctly injurious, in which 
the “muscular dosage” must be carefully 
measured lest the fatigue poisons develop 
which invariably result from a monotonous 
series of movements of a single group of 
muscles, especially if such movements are 


196 Brain Culture Through 

carried out in a cramped, rigid and unnat¬ 
ural position. 

A simple yet remarkable cure of that 
grave and widespread disease, curvature of 
the spine, has been discovered some few 
years ago by Professor Klapp of the Uni¬ 
versity of Bonn, in Germany. The cure 
consists in making the children crawl on all 
fours like animals. The Professor was led 
to its discovery, by his observation of pup¬ 
pies. He found that, however badly twist¬ 
ed their spines might be at birth, they were 
always straightened out after they had 
crawled about the ground for a few weeks. 
From prolonged observation, he decided that 
the straightening of the puppies’ spines was 
due to the crawling method of locomotion, 
and that on the other hand, curvature of the 
spine in children was either caused or in¬ 
tensified by the upright position. He con¬ 
cluded, therefore, that the proper way to 
cure the disease in children was to make 
them crawl about the floor like puppies. 
He put this plan into execution and quickly 


Scientific Body Building 197 

succeeded in curing over one hundred chil¬ 
dren. 

I have used this method since the an¬ 
nouncement of the discovery to find that 
they not only do exactly what this noted 
surgeon predicted, but that the children 
enjoy the crawling exercises exceedingly. 
There are two principal classes of exercises, 
those in which the pupils move about and 
those in which they remain stationary in one 
spot. In the first class of exercises, the 
pupils start by resting on both knees and 
both hands, keep the arms straight and head 
slightly lifted backward, then they move 
forward on hands and knees, the hands being 
slightly turned outward. They put forward 
the right hand and the left leg, the left hand 
and the right leg. The body must follow 
these movements freely, and the spine will 
be exercised in a manner tending to cure 
its deformity. 

The exercises in stationary position: The 
pupil supports himself on his knees, and 
places the hands near them, then he bends 


198 


Brain Culture Through 


the arms twenty times without moving the 
hands. In the next exercise each arm is 
bent separately ten times. After this the pupil 
bends the body backward till his arms are 
raised straight above his head, and then 
brings them back again to the original posi¬ 
tion at the knees. 

Curvature of the spine is a disease that 
afflicts an enormous number of the chil¬ 
dren and grown people. It shows itself in 
misplaced shoulders and hips, hunch backs 
and other deformities. It causes injury to 
heart and lungs and other internal organs, 
and often leads to early death. The com¬ 
mon method of treatment involves the use 
of steel braces, and other expensive appa¬ 
ratus, and of constant expert supervision by 
doctors and trained nurses. This treat¬ 
ment is not only inefficient but on account of 
trouble and expense, is beyond the reach of 
the poorer classes, who usually neglect a 
case of curvature of the spine in their chil¬ 
dren, unless it is exceedingly severe. But 
the crawling method of treatment requires 


Scientific Body Building 


199 


neither expense, nor expert supervision. It 
is very easily carried out under the direction 
of a trained nurse. Spinal curvature is 
principally due to the upright position of 
human beings, the head and the greater part 
of the body rests upon the spinal column, 
and bends it out of shape if it has any weak¬ 
ness. In the case of four-footed animals 
this weight does not rest on the spinal col¬ 
umn, and in addition the very position on all 
fours will tend to cure any deformity that 
exists. 

While the crawling treatment is in prog¬ 
ress, it is desirable to remove any other 
causes which give rise to the disease, such 
as bad position at the school desk, bending 
back on account of short sight, etc. We 
can understand the value of the four-footed 
position in straightening the spine, when we 
study the movements of a dog. When the 
animal is in motion, the feet on one side are 
brought close together, and those on the 
opposite side are stretched far apart, the 
swifter the movement the more extreme are 


200 


Brain Culture Through 


the bringing together and the separation of 
the feet. By these movements the spine 
is first vigorously curved on one side, and 
then on the other. These movements ren¬ 
der the spine straight, strong and supple, 
and correct any congenital deformity. In 
superintending the crawling exercises of a 
child, see that they sway well away from 
the convexity of the curvature. Teach the 
child to move his back freely from side to 
side, and not to keep it stiff, also moving the 
head from side to side helps the neck, and 
strengthens the back generally. A special 
exercise is designed to aid in strengthening 
the heart and lungs. The child stops still 
on his hands and knees and rotates his body 
from side to side. An exercise in which the 
pupil or patient copies the movement of a 
trotting animal is intended to strengthen 
the ribs and shoulders, especially when the 
disease is severe. Various exercises be¬ 
sides crawling are necessary to effect a cure. 
These are usually carried out in the quad¬ 
rupedal position, or starting from that po- 


Scientific Body Building 


201 


sition. Taking the arms from the ground 
and bending up and down while still kneel¬ 
ing, is a very useful exercise. The exercises 
can be effective only if they are kept up for a 
great length of time, extending in some cases 
to a year or more, they then produce a per¬ 
manent effect upon the body. They must 
never be performed until they exhaust the 
pupil, and resting in the proper position is 
of great benefit in correcting the deformity. 
Many precautions may be taken by parents 
to assist the cure of curvature or to prevent 
its development. Children should never be 
allowed to sit up at too early an age; the 
carrying of heavy books and school bags 
may lead to serious injury; a bad position 
in writing is the commonest cause of the 
disease; a child sitting at a desk too low 
acquires hunch back and lateral curvature 
of the spine. The desk should be capable 
of being regulated to fit the height of the 
writer. When a child is actually afflicted 
by curvature, he should not be allowed to 
write at a desk, the best position is in any 


202 


Scientific Body Building 


easy chair, such as a steamer chair in which 
the full length of the back can be rested and 
the feet taken off the ground. 

Of the most vital importance is the ques¬ 
tion of nourishment. Children must be 
very well nourished, in order to benefit by 
the treatment; for curvature, they should 
have eleven or twelve hours’ sleep every 
night, they should never be required to do 
the full regular number of hours’ work at 
school. Rest and good nourishment will 
assist the natural tendency of nature to 
cure a diseased condition. In the early 
months of life, the child should be permitted 
to lie on his back and stomach, and never 
placed in an upright position. He should be 
encouraged to crawl freely, and not be al¬ 
lowed to stand or walk until he shows ample 
strength. 

Young girls should not be permitted to 
wear corsets, as they aggravate curvature 
by adding to the weight placed upon the 
spine, and by hindering the tendency of 
nature to correct the disease. 


SPECIAL EXERCISES FOR THE 
VARIOUS MUSCLE 
GROUPS 






CHAPTER VIII 


Special Exercises for the Various Muscle 
Groups 

The following exercises are intended to 
strengthen any undeveloped part of the 
body: 

TO DEVELOP THE LEG BELOW THE KNEE 

The principal part of the leg below the 
knee is composed of muscles which raise the 
heel. Stand erect, with the head high, 
chest out, and shoulders down, keeping the 
knees well thrown back; have the feet about 
four inches apart with the toes turned out¬ 
ward. Now slowly raise the heels until they 
are high off the floor, and the entire weight 
rests on the soles and toes. Then drop 
slowly down. Repeat at least twenty-five 
times daily. 

Another exercise for the same muscles is 
running on the toes, or rather the soles and 


206 


Brain Culture Through 


toes. Here the whole weight is held by and 
pushed from first the muscles of one calf, 
then of the other. 

EXERCISE FOR THE SHIN MUSCLES 

There is one other prominent muscle below 
the knee, that in front, running down along 
the outer side of the shin bone. Fast walk¬ 
ing when one is unused to it, especially when 
the knees are held pretty straight, will work 
this muscle so vigorously as to make it sore, 
but a simple exercise for it is stooping down 
as low as possible, the feet being but a few 
inches apart, and the heels never being al¬ 
lowed to rise even a quarter of an inch off 
the floor. Lift the heels and this muscle 
is at once relieved; also walking on the heels 
with the toes drawn up high is simpler yet. 

EXERCISES FOR THE FRONT OF THE THIGH 

Stand erect with head and chest high, and 
the feet about six inches apart. Now bend 
the knees a little, say until the head has 
dropped vertically six inches. Then rise to 


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the perpendicular again. This movement 
is somewhat akin to that in dancing, the 
only difference is, that in dancing the weight 
is first on one foot, then on the other, while 
in the former, it is always on both feet. 
Again, instead of stooping for a few inches, 
only, start as before, with head and neck 
rigidly erect, and then stoop all the way 
down, and rise again. Continue this move¬ 
ment several times, as the strength increases, 
so should the number. 

A more difficult one still, is holding one 
foot far out, either in front or back, and then 
stooping down wholly on the other foot. 
For perfecting the symmetry of the thigh, 
these exercises are unparalleled. Fast walk¬ 
ing, jumping, long distance walking and 
running is excellent; running exercises, not 
flat-footed running, as the heel should never 
touch the ground. 

The farmer and the laboring man, in all 
their heavier work of stooping over their 
tasks, such as lifting, shoveling, picking, 
digging and mowing, use the thighs much; 


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but keep them so long fixed in one position, 
with little or no varying exercise to supple 
and limber them and the joints, that both 
gradually stiffen, and their instep soon be¬ 
gins to lack elasticity, and the muscles 
harden. 

Cycling is a splendid exercise to give an all 
round muscular tone, but does not compare 
with wrestling. The majority of cyclists sit 
in such a way as to cramp their vital or¬ 
gans and so impede their work. One should 
sit with the head always exactly on top of 
the spine, not poked two or three inches for¬ 
ward. It is not necessary to sit up as 
straight as a stick, lean forward slightly 
from the hip joint, as you would if you were 
running. Keep your head up, chin in, chest 
up, back straight, and mouth shut. So 
long as a cyclist can breathe with his mouth 
shut, he will not strain his heart. 

Increase your lung capacity by practicing 
deep breathing as follows: Hold your head 
up, shoulders back, chest out; inhale slowly 
through the nose while counting seven. 


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Hold until you have counted three. Exhale 
quickly. Repeat, while making longer 
counts. 

Hopping on one foot is a quick way to 
develop the calf, also frequent stooping 
down as low as possible is a sure way to 
speedily enlarge and strengthen the thighs. 

TO ENLARGE THE UNDER THIGH 

The muscles of the under thigh are de¬ 
veloped by pressing the sole of the foot hard 
on the ground, just as it leaves it, also walk¬ 
ing uphill, also standing like the West 
Pointer, in his “setting up drill,” and with 
knees unbent, trying to touch the floor with 
the hands. Another exercise is standing 
with the back to the wall, and placing the 
heel against the baseboard of the room, and 
pressing hard backwards many times. These 
all develop the hidden biceps, muscles of 
the legs; while running with the foot thrown 
high behind excels them all. 

TO STRENGTHEN THE SIDES OF THE WAIST 

The duty of the muscles at the sides of the 
waist, is to hold the body erect. Often an 


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awkward carriage of the body is due to the 
weakness of these muscles, allowing the 
body to sway from side to side. Practice 
daily, hopping straight ahead on one foot, 
then on the other; also walking a straight 
line. Wrestling also, whether Cornish or 
Graeco-Roman, tells directly on these mus¬ 
cles. Another exercise which will speedily 
develop them, is to stand erect; put one hand 
as high over your head as you can, put the 
other as low down at your side as you can. 
Now raise the low hand and lower the high 
one. You will feel like swaying your body 
to one side as you do this, and sway it all 
you can. This exercise is one of the well 
known “Liver Squeezers.” 

EXERCISES FOR THE ABDOMINAL MUSCLES 

A person whose abdominal muscles are 
weak will usually have a feeble walk. A 
simple device for training these muscles, 
which will take the place of a rowing ma¬ 
chine, can be prepared in a few minutes. An 
ordinary bit of strap screwed to the base- 


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board of one's room, so that each foot shall 
have a loop of it to go into, and then a 
stool or hassock some eight or ten inches 
high to sit on, will produce marked results 
in a short time. Lie flat on the back, tak¬ 
ing first a deep full breath, draw the feet 
upward, keeping the knees unbent, until the 
legs are vertical. Lower them slowly till 
horizontal, then raise again and continue. 
Then keep the legs down, and first filling 
the chest, now draw the body up until you 
are sitting erect. Then drop slowly back, 
and repeat several times. 

COUNTERWORK FOR THE ABDOMINAL 
MUSCLES 

While the foregoing exercises strengthen 
the muscles, they tend to contract, rather 
than lengthen them, and for sedentary peo¬ 
ple, inclined to stoop a little forward some 
exercises are needed, which shall stretch 
these muscles and aid in restoring them 
to their natural strength. 

Stand erect, now gradually draw the head 


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Brain Culture Through 


backward until as far past the vertical as 
possible, return slowly to erect position. In 
the simple exercise these muscles were 
stretched to a greater length than usual, and 
in those who accustom themselves to draw¬ 
ing far back in this way, like the contor¬ 
tionists of the circus, these muscles grow 
beautifully elastic, and moderate perform¬ 
ance in this way tends to stretch and length¬ 
en muscles which in the great majority of 
people, are somewhat cramped and short¬ 
ened nearly every hour of the twenty-four 
by habitual standing, sitting or lying with 
back either flat or almost curved outward 
instead of slightly hollowed in, and with the 
consequent sinking of the chest, while the 
drawing of the head and shoulders back 
swiftly as in boxing to avoid a blow, can 
scarcely be equalled as an aid in this direc¬ 
tion. In fact the chief cause of being in- 
erect, is holding the head forward. 

TO ENLARGE AND STRENGTHEN THE LOINS 

While we are upon the waist muscles, 
there is another set of muscles, which de- 


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213 


mand attention, and if they are weak, no 
matter how strong one may be elsewhere, he 
is weak in a place, where he can ill afford to 
be, and that is in the loins, or the main 
muscles in the part of the back, running up 
and down at each side of the spine. 

Strong loins are always desirable. He 
who has them and is called on in any sudden 
emergency to lift any heavy weight, as the 
prostrate form of one who has fallen in a 
swoon, for instance, is far less likely to work 
himself serious, if not permanent injury, 
than he who has them untrained and 
undeveloped. 

DEVELOPMENT ABOVE THE WAIST 

The connection between the arms and the 
muscles, both on the front and back of the 
chest, is so close that it is practically im¬ 
possible to have arms thoroughly developed 
and not have all the trunk muscles above the 
waist equally so. Inhale deeply, throw the 
arms up over the head, and describe spirals 
and circles with each hand a few minutes 
daily. 


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FILLING OUT THE SHOULDERS AND UPPER 
BACK 

Stand erect and in perfect poise, carry the 
arms backward and upward, keeping the 
arms straight at the elbows and parallel, 
hold them there a moment, inhale deeply, 
and make large outgoing circles with each 
arm. 

EXERCISE FOR BICEPS 

Place one hand in the other and bear 
down hard with the upper hand, holding the 
neck firmly back; lift away with the lower 
hand and when it reaches the shoulder, 
lower it slowly to the side, and then raise 
again, and so continue. Mounting a ladder 
or a rope, hand over hand, lifting any weight 
in front of you, whether a feather or a child, 
picking up articles from the floor, holding 
weights out in front of you or at your side 
at arm’s length, pulling downward on a rope 
as in hauling up a sail; in short, anything 
which bends the elbows and draws the hand 
in toward the shoulder, develops the biceps 
muscle, and if these exercises are persisted 


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215 


in, this muscle will ere long become strong 
and well shaped. 

TO DEVELOP THE MUSCLES ON THE FRONT 
AND SIDE OF THE SHOULDER 

Sit erect on a chair, relax the torso, now 
twist the trunk of the body from the hip 
joint, first to the right and then to the left 
side; concentrate on the shoulder muscles, 
and finish each movement by bringing each 
shoulder up as high as the ear. 

EXERCISE FOR THE FOREARM 

Most of the exercises for the biceps and 
shoulder have also called on the forearm. 
Anything which necessitates shutting the 
hand or keeping it partly, or wholly shut 
such as holding anything heavy in it, driv¬ 
ing, chopping, hammering, fencing single 
stick, pulling one’s self up with one hand 
or both, going up a rope or ladder hand 
over hand, batting, lacrosse, polo, carrying 
a weight in the hand, will develop the 
forearm. 


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EXERCISES FOR THE TRICEPS MUSCLES 

The triceps muscles are the bulk of what 
remains of the upper arm, after leaving out 
the biceps and the inner side of the triceps. 
When well developed, this is one of the 
handsomest parts of the arm. No arm will 
look slim, which has this muscle fully de¬ 
veloped. To develop these muscles, push 
with the hands against almost any heavy 
or solid thing. If these muscles are small 
and weak they can be strengthened by the 
following simple exercise: 

Stand facing the wall, and about two feet 
from it. Now fall against it, next put your 
hands on it about three feet apart, and as 
high as your ears, let your body drop slowly 
in towards the wall till your chest nearly 
touches it, your face being held up and back. 
Then push back till your body is again 
erect, and continue the movement. 

Again place the hands on the floor, hold 
the body out at full length and rigid, or as 
nearly so as you can, and push, raising the 
body till the elbows are straight. Now 


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217 


bend the elbows and lower again, till the 
face nearly touches the floor, keeping the 
body all the time as stiff and straight as pos¬ 
sible, and then rise on stiff elbows again, and 
so on. 

Another fine exercise. Place two strong 
chairs, back to back, draw them about 
eighteen or twenty inches apart, and placing 
one hand on each, holding the arms straight, 
and head erect, lift the feet off the floor, then 
lower till the chin is level with the hands, or 
nearly so, and then rise till the arms are 
straight, and then dip again, and so on; the 
knees and feet, of course, never resting on 
anything. This is one of the best known 
exercises for bringing quick development 
and good strength to the triceps or back 
arm. 

For improving the ordinary grip of the 
hand, simply taking a rubber ball in it, or a 
wad of any elastic material, and repeatedly 
squeezing it, will soon tell. Simpler yet, 
is it to just practice opening and shutting 
the hand firmly many times. 


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Brain Culture Through 


TO STRENGTHEN THE FRONT OF THE CHEST 

Each exercise for the biceps, tells also 
on the pectoral muscles or those on the front 
of the upper part of the chest, for the two 
work so intimately together, that he who has 
a large biceps, is practically sure to have the 
adjoining pectoral correspondingly large. 
But there are other movements which tell on 
them besides biceps work. Whenever the 
hands push hard against anything, and so 
call the triceps muscles into action, these 
muscles at once combine with them. Never 
attempt the severe triceps work such as the 
dips, without thorough muscular develop¬ 
ment, preceding the effort, as the strain 
across these chest muscles is very great, for 
they are a very important factor in helping 
to hold up the weight of the whole body. It 
is sheer folly for any one to try so severe a 
thing as a dip, when his triceps and pectoral 
muscles have not been used to any such 
heavy work. Many a person who has rash¬ 
ly attempted this, has had to pay for it, 
with a pain for several days at the edge of 


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219 


the pectoral, where it meets the breast bone. 

If you observe a gymnast in exercising 
costume, you will notice that while these 
pectoral muscles are almost huge, his chest 
has the appearance of not having been en¬ 
larged accordingly. He looks as though the 
bare frame work, would present actually a 
small chest. Many gymnasts have this ap¬ 
pearance, for they take so much severe 
muscular work, that it draws from their 
vitality, giving them a stale and exhausted 
look. 

It is obvious then, that the getting up of a 
large chest, and of large muscles on the chest 
while often contemporary, and each aiding 
the other, are too frequently wholly different 
matters, and bodily education has no more 
important problem, than how to develop a 
strong flexible chest. 

TO DEVELOP A STRONG FLEXIBLE CHEST 

The arms and shoulders are the medium 
through which the chest receives almost all 
it's exercise, the next important step is deep 


220 


Brain Culture Through 


breathing. Anything which causes one to 
fill his lungs to their utmost capacity, and 
then hold them full as long as he can, tends 
directly to open his ribs apart; stretch the 
intercostal muscles, and so expand the chest. 
Many vigorous muscular exercises do this, 
when done correctly, for they cause the full 
breathing and at the same time directly aid 
in opening the ribs. Notice for instance he 
who “curls” a heavy dumb-bell but does it 
with his head and shoulders bent over, as 
many do, while giving his pectorals active 
work is actually tending to cramp his chest 
instead of expanding it, the very weight of 
the dumb-bell all pulling in the wrong di¬ 
rection. 

Every teacher should see that the pupils 
have a perfect standing position before be¬ 
ginning the exercises. Holding the head 
and neck back of the vertical, say six inches, 
with the face pointing to the ceiling, and 
then making spirals or circles with the arms 
is fine for the upper chest, tending to raise 
the depressed collar bones and the whole 


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221 


upper ribs, and to make a person hitherto 
flat chested, now shapely and full, while the 
benefit to lungs would be invaluable. 

Light easy running is a great help in 
enlarging the lung room, so is plenty of 
sparring, so is the practice of drawing air 
slowly in at the nostrils until every air cell 
of the lungs is absolutely full and then ex¬ 
pelling slowly. 

Public speakers and singers know the 
value of this and kindred practices in bring¬ 
ing with increased diaphragmatic action, 
improved power and endurance of voice. 

Again standing erect with heels together, 
toes well out and hands hanging at your 
sides, keeping elbows straight, slap the backs 
of your hands together as high over the head 
as you can; at the same time rise high on 
your toes and soles. Do this slowly several 
times a day. This is a great chest broaden- 
er and is also good for the calves of the legs. 
Again stand as before; but this time keep 
the arms parallel and raise them in front as 
high as you can, rising on the toes and soles 


222 


Brain Culture Through 


as before; this is a fine chest deepener while 
the preceding one is a broadener. Five 
minutes daily exercise of this broadening 
and five minutes daily of the deepening ex¬ 
ercise for every child in every school in this 
country, and sitting always erect, would in 
one year do more to prevent consumption 
than almost anything else that could be 
done. It needs no apparatus and it costs 
nothing. Only be sure of one thing namely, 
breathe as slowly and deeply as you can all 
the time you are at this exercise and see that 
your room is flooded with fresh air, it is as 
fine an exercise for adults, as for children. 
Also running slowly, taking just as short 
steps as you can is a rare chest expander. 
You can do this right in your room, right 
on one spot in fact, which is called still run¬ 
ning. 

EXERCISES FOR DEVELOPING THE NECK 

A slim neck is usually a sign of weakness. 
You often see men with a grand head con¬ 
nected with a feeble body by a weak unsat- 


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223 


isfactory looking neck. Put such a neck 
under Webster’s head and his working 
power would have been so cut down that 
after his earlier years it is doubtful if he 
would have ever been heard of, for a feeble 
body could not long stand the demands of 
such a head. A large head usually indicates 
a great amount of nervous energy and when 
accompanied by a large neck is a sign of 
physical strength. So the splendid neck of 
a Mirabeau, a Luther or a Bismarck means 
something after all. 

A splendid exercise for developing the 
neck is to tip your head over backwards 
slowly, as far as you can and as often as you 
can each day. Draw your chin far in many 
times daily, also turn your face slowly, as 
far around as you can. Now do it the other 
way and many times every day. Every 
morning and night and if you awaken in the 
night lie on your back; rest on your head 
and heels and nothing else. This is called 
the “Wrestler’s Bridge.” For until you 
make both shoulders of a wrestler touch the 


224 


Scientific Body Building 


ground at once, you have not thrown him. 
A few minutes daily of these all round phy¬ 
sical exercises will develop a fine symmetri¬ 
cal body at the end of four months. 


POSTURE EXERCISES INCLUDING 
SPECIFIC MOVEMENTS 
FOR OBESITY 






9 

















CHAPTER IX 


Posture Exercises Including Specific Move¬ 
ments for Obesity 

From time immemorial, the code of prac¬ 
tice of oriental mystics who aspired to per¬ 
fection has been constant physical training, 
month in and month out for years. The 
result claimed and certainly in many cases 
accorded by impartial judges, is strength of 
character, personal power, unshakability of 
soul. I enjoyed the privilege of being a 
pupil of one of these famous mystics a few 
years ago, and agree with many who ac¬ 
knowledge that the present system of rhyth¬ 
mical breathing, and specific posture work, 
are very beneficial. 

In regard to the breathing exercises, too 
much cannot be said, although breathing is 
an involuntary automatic act, yet conscious 
breathing is of great assistance, in gaining 
mastery over the breathing apparatus, and 


228 


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acquiring a flexible condition of the thorax. 
A condition that is fundamental to all ar¬ 
tistic singing, and speaking, and only those 
who practice the deep conscious breathing 
can understand what I mean, when I speak 
of the awakening of the great emotional, and 
spiritual powers, which enfold in obedience 
to the law of concentration, upon the breath¬ 
ing apparatus. 

POSTURE ONE, FOR PLACING HANDS AND HEAD 
ON FLOOR 

Stand in perfect balance, in a perfectly 
relaxed condition, sway forward and back¬ 
ward a few times, throw the arms up at full 
length, stretch as high as possible, then 
bending slowly from hip joint place hands on 
floor, stretch some more, and place head on 
floor. 

POSTURE TWO, SAME AS POSTURE ONE, BUT 

WITH ARMS OUTSTRETCHED AND RAISED 
FROM FLOOR 

This posture compels a sense of concen- 


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229 


tration in the main joints of the body. The 
position need not be held over one half a 
minute. 

POSTURE THREE, STANDING, RIGHT FOOT IN 
FRONT OF LEFT. SINK SLOWLY TO 
THE FLOOR 

Stand in perfect poise, slowly relax the 
body from joint to joint, place right foot 
immediately in front of the left, sink slowly 
to the floor in this position, then rise slowly 
to standing position, and reverse exercise. 

POSTURE FOUR 

As the transitional movements cannot be 
given in an illustration, I can only give in 
the picture, the final position of each move¬ 
ment, but all of these are taken with music 
of decided rhythm, and the transitions are 
unfolded slowly, from joint to joint, thus 
compelling a sense of rhythm and concen¬ 
tration in persons, otherwise, seemingly in¬ 
capable of concentration. They also bring 
fine results in persons of disordered mental- 


230 Brain Culture Through 

ity. In posture four, we begin with the 
body in perfect poise, then slowly extend the 
right foot forward in a diagonal line, begin 
at this point to draw the foot in an outgoing 
circle to the right side, then draw right foot 
behind you and in this position, sink slowly 
to the floor. This will bring the right foot 
under you, and the left foot immediately 
in front of you, then slowly bend forward 
from the hip joint, and place head on floor, 
bringing the forehead, in touch with the 
floor, and left leg, then raise both hands up 
as high as possible, hold the position three 
minutes. This is difficult to do at first, but 
after some preliminary education, young and 
old enjoy these exercises as they lead to, and 
open up, the road to the finer and expres- 
sional movements of the aesthetic body 
work. 

POSTURE FIVE, BOTH FEET TOUCHING OVER 
THE HEAD 

Lie flat on the back in a perfectly relaxed 
position, inhale deeply a few times, then 


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231 


raise both feet, throw them up over the 
head, and touch the floor. This is a fine 
exercise to restore disordered circulation, 
and also for the spine; hold position a brief 
moment, then take posture six. 

POSTURE SIX, RIGHT FOOT IN THE AIR 

Repeat same position, then slowly raise 
the right foot in air, according to line in the 
illustration, slowly place back on the floor, 
and raise the left foot up. Try to have the 
foot come in a line over the forehead, beyond 
it if possible, in order to compel the sense of 
balance. 

POSTURE SEVEN, BOTH FEET IN THE AIR 

This position is extremely difficult for any 
beginner, and should not be tried, by per¬ 
sons whose muscles have not been trained, 
it increases neuro-muscular control, and 
compels the feeling of certainty of balance. 

POSTURE EIGHT 

Take correct standing position, then cross 
right foot over left, sink slowly to the floor 


232 


Brain Culture Through 


as in first position, then bring right foot up 
to the left ear. Take correct position then 
cross left foot over the right, sink slowly to 
the floor, then bring left foot to the right 
ear. 

POSTURE NINE 

Repeat posture eight, and while in sitting 
position, bring right toe to left ear, and left 
toe to right ear, hold position one minute. 

POSTURE TEN 

Repeat sitting position as in posture nine, 
drop feet from ears, place both hands on the 
floor, by pressure of the hands against the 
floor, raise the body, slip the hands firmly 
under the body for balance, then walk a few 
steps on the hands. This is extremely dif¬ 
ficult, and can only be done after great 
practice. 

POSTURE ELEVEN 

Take balancing position as defined in 
previous chapter, for the right diagonal 
balance, then extend right foot in a diagonal 


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line from the body, raise the right arm on a 
line with the shoulder, then standing in 
balance, raise the left foot on a line with the 
waist. Now clasp left foot with the left 
hand and place on the back of the head. 
This gives an added sense of balance, and is 
an excellent one for creating mobility of 
movement and suppleness of joints. 

POSTURE TWELVE, MAKE TRIANGLE OF FEET 

Lie flat on your back, slowly raise the 
trunk from the floor to a sitting position, 
then bring the feet in the position of a tri¬ 
angle, slowly drop forward, place head in 
space of triangle. 

POSTURE THIRTEEN 

Sitting with the feet crossed, Oriental 
fashion, let head drop in a diagonal line over 
right knee, and touch floor with forehead, 
then bring head in a diagonal line over left 
knee, and touch floor with forehead. 

POSTURE FOURTEEN 

Sit on floor, feet outstretched before you, 


234 


Brain Culture Through 


do not allow any space between the under 
part of knees and floor, then slowly bend 
forward, and touch forehead to each knee. 

POSTURE FIFTEEN 

Take position on floor for postures eight 
and nine, and try to join your hands, on the 
usually unapproachable upper part of your 
back. 

POSTURE SIXTEEN 

Take position for postures eight and nine, 
and try to bring the toe of your right foot 
to your left ear without bending the knee. 

POSTURE SEVENTEEN 

Sitting on the floor, feet outstretched, 
reach and grasp right foot with right hand, 
and left foot with left hand, then push out 
alternately, first right foot, then with left 
foot, inhaling deeply as you thrust the foot 
out, exhaling as you bring the foot back. 
This is one of the best exercises, for the 
muscles of the entire body, as it awakens 
and stimulates the muscles of neck, shoul¬ 
ders, trunk, arms, thighs, and legs. 


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235 


POSTURE EIGHTEEN 

This is the twist balance illustrated in 
figure eighteen. This is one of the most 
important exercises for increasing the neuro¬ 
muscular control. 

POSTURE NINETEEN 

Take wide base position, then several deep 
inhalations, sway slowly from side to side, 
finish exercise as given in illustration. 

POSTURE TWENTY 

Before taking position in the illustration, 
stand in perfect poise, place left index finger 
on left nostril, inhale slowly through right 
nostril, hold while you count seven; then 
place index finger of right hand on right 
nostril, slowly exhale through left nostril, 
and finish exercise with upward stretching 
of arms in spiral movements. 

POSTURE TWENTY-ONE 

Take position in illustration, then slowly 
bend from hip joint, and place forehead on 
right knee. Reverse. 


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Brain Culture Through 


POSTURE TWENTY-TWO 
Take a relaxed standing position, inhale 
deeply, exhale slowly, then slowly drop head 
and torso backward, bending from hip 
joint, and take position in the illustration. 

POSTURE TWENTY-THREE 
Posture twenty-three is a continuation of 
the movements in posture twenty-two, until 
the body is in the position illustrated. 

POSTURE TWENTY-FOUR 

This exercise is one of the best in the series 
given for compelling a sense balance; the 
trunk of the body is turned quickly toward 
the side of the outstretched leg, then the 
pupil immediately assumes position as in 
posture twenty-two. Always reverse move¬ 
ments. 

POSTURE TWENTY-FIVE 

Take correct standing position, slowly 
relax the body, draw left foot behind right, 
and sink to the floor, taking position in illus¬ 
tration. 


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237 


POSTURE TWENTY-SIX 

Reverse movement, taking position in il¬ 
lustration. 

POSTURE TWENTY-SEVEN 

Take standing position with arms out¬ 
stretched, move left foot forward in a diag¬ 
onal line from the body, bend left knee, then 
slowly bend trunk of the body toward left 
knee, drop head to the floor inside left foot 
and take position in illustration. Reverse 
position. 

POSTURE TWENTY-EIGHT 

In this movement, the head is a little be¬ 
yond foot, with outstretched leg touching 
floor. 

POSTURE TWENTY-NINE 

In this exercise, the body should be held 
in perfect balance, with hands clasped high 
over the back as in illustration. Reverse 
position. 

These posture movements create a feeling 
of relaxation, harmony, pliancy, and above 
all compel concentration, through the sense 


238 


Brain Culture Through 


of balance, all of which things are extremely 
restful. Any of them can be practiced any¬ 
where, and at any hour of the day or evening 
without attracting notice. 

They teach how to sit down gracefully 
without any awkward or unnecessary move¬ 
ments, how to get up in the same way, how 
to stand so as to be at rest, and above all, 
they teach how to breathe so as to keep the 
circulation in good order. 

Repose of movement means grace, rest 
and health, and in these strenous days we 
all need as much help as we can obtain in 
order to reach these things. 

Spontaneous attention and concentra¬ 
tion is conditioned by spontaneous muscle 
tension which is a function of growth and de¬ 
velopment. Scarcely a pupil has ever been 
allowed to enter my dramatic art depart¬ 
ment, who has not been trained in this entire 
range of physical work. The only ones ex¬ 
cepted were those who were the victims of 
some congenital defect. The aim of this 
work has been to do everything physically 


Scientific Body Building 


239 


possible for the human body as a mechan¬ 
ism. No engineer would treat his engine 
for a day, as we treat our bodies, year in and 
year out. Many positions and attitudes are 
assumed, for thoroughly accelerating and 
eliminating waste products from the system. 
We rarely stop to think of the deadly increase 
of the number of degenerative diseases of 
our time, due to the inactivity of the elimi¬ 
nating processes of the body, such as the 
lungs, kidney, liver, skin and so forth, that 
have been clogged for years, before the fatal 
breakdown came, when a few minutes, say 
half an hour daily, would suffice to give us 
as pure, sweet, and healthy a body as a 
baby. 

In one of the large Eastern cities lived a 
young Harvard man, a noted jurist, six feet 
tall, of superb physique, who weighed one 
hundred and eighty pounds. A fine, strong 
man, of good habits, who looked as if he 
would outlive Bismarck or Gladstone. This 
young man (one should be very young at 
fifty) broke down and died in his forty- 


240 


Brain Culture Through 


seventh year. For a year previous to his 
death he looked ansemic. His death was 
due to cancer of the liver, and yet it is a 
fact, well known to physicians and special¬ 
ists, that muscular exercises which furnish 
active nutrition to the muscles, is unfavor¬ 
able to the deposition of morbid matter. 

Many eminent thinkers have noticed that 
physical exercise is favorable to brain work. 
Herbert Spencer, for instance, tells of the 
intellectual stimulus he got from physical 
exercise, although insomnia and defective 
vision were evils from which he suffered. 
His nervous trouble had been ascribed to 
that cause. Instead of consulting an ocu¬ 
list, he persuaded himself that his trouble 
was due to his cerebral circulation. He re¬ 
sorted to various devices for self cure. He 
cultivated all indoor and outdoor games as 
safety valves. While composing the earlier 
parts of his First Principles, he would first 
row in a boat for a quarter of an hour, to 
make the blood flow freely through the brain 
and then would dictate for hours. It is 







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Scientific Body Building 


241 


note-worthy that his confidence in the 
power of good circulation, to stimulate 
thought, is justified in one of his most 
abstruse efforts “Transfigured Realism,” 
which was dictated in the intervals, of a 
game of racquets. 

In studying the biographies of the famous 
men and women, who have lived to great 
age, it is remarkable how often we read of 
the emphasis many of them placed upon 
some particular phase of physical exercise, 
and indeed it would seem, that the capacity 
for splendid muscular development is re¬ 
tained until long after youth. I do not 
hesitate to say, that with the right kind of 
exercise it may continue until extreme age 
arrests all development. 

Kant, the great metaphysician, applied 
his utmost intelligence, to the task of making 
his body the obedient instrument of his 
mind, maintaining that one should know 
how to adapt himself to his body. Kant 
tried to do away with the disadvantages of 
his small and badly formed body. “On 


242 


Brain Culture Through 


account of my flat and narrow chest” he 
wrote a friend, “which affords but little 
room for the movement of the heart and 
lungs, I have a natural predisposition to 
hypochondria, which in earlier years bor¬ 
dered on weariness of life. While I felt op¬ 
pressed in my chest, my head was clear. 
The oppression in my chest remains, for 
its cause lies in the structure of my body, 
but I have become master of its influence on 
my thoughts.” 

Many noted writers seem to agree in be¬ 
lieving, that the state of the body accounts 
for the emotional life, and decides whether 
a man becomes a hypochondriac or a men¬ 
tally well balanced person. The essence of 
the optomistic philosophy of today may be 
summed up in that beautiful thought 
“Whatever is, is right.” Darwin has said 
that no one could observe without a theory; 
’tis a fine point in metaphysics, but if your 
experiences in life have converged into such 
a belief that you can accept Pope’s theory, 
even then you cannot but wonder that the 


Scientific Body Building 243 

phrase “Whatever is, is right” was penned 
by one so put upon by nature. 

Pope was a deformed and helpless invalid, 
but his mind was brilliant, his energy in¬ 
exhaustible, and his will strong. It may not 
be amiss to state another form of physical 
exercise, which provided a great brain 
stimulant to one of the most illustrious 
brains in history. I am not quite certain, 
that it would be a popular or desirable form 
of exercise. At school, Sir Isaac Newton, 
showed no great aptitude for study, and 
doubtless would have remained low in his 
classes, but for the fact that he was incited 
to get ahead of a boy who kicked him in the 
stomach, after this stimulating kick he 
worked industriously and became the first 
scholar of his class. We read in the life 
of Heine of the excruciating agony he suf¬ 
fered in his invalidism, and how it became 
prolonged into a twelve years’ martyrdom 
during eight of which he lay with spinal 
paralysis, a prisoner to his bed; yet he work¬ 
ed industriously, and had an indestructible 


244 


Brain Culture Through 


joy in life. The question may arise in the 
minds of some, as a sort of plea for inactivity 
how these men, could have attained such 
marvelous brilliancy of mind, while the body 
was inactive, and I reply, these are cases of a 
higher development, in whom a finer hered¬ 
ity has worked out, and cast behind, the 
mere sense characteristics of dominating 
ancestors, and so biography teems with 
names who have won achievement in spite 
of bitterest obstacles. They turned suf¬ 
fering to a glorious account, and we learn 
from such victories, that we can gather from 
triumphs over the body a new consciousness 
of the divinity of the spirit. 

Obesity is not a disease, but a symptom 
of a disease. In my illustrated lectures on 
the body, I never give the specific exer¬ 
cises for obesity, because I have found that 
many in the audience went home and tried 
them, which in some cases resulted unpleas¬ 
antly. Two years ago I gave a lecture upon 
this subject before one of the Mothers’ 
Clubs. A mother whose daughter of six- 


Scientific Body Building 


245 


teen weighed one hundred and eighty 
pounds, insisted upon her daughter going 
through some of the exercises, which I had 
illustrated. The young girl might have been 
permanently injured, as her muscles had not 
been trained up to the point of endurance, 
for such exercises. In prescribing exercises 
for my pupils, I always take into account 
their previous muscular education, and 
general physical condition, and “Muscular 
Dosage” is one of the most vital problems 
in physical education. 

Teachers of physical education, should 
have the trained eye to detect any defect 
of the spine, any physical idiosyncrasy of 
movement, because that is usually due to 
weakness of certain muscles; the trained 
ear to detect any weakness of the heart; the 
trained hands to detect any defect of spine, 
not apparent to the eye. Treatment of the 
obese should always deal with causes, and 
not effects. The truth of the matter is, 
that dieting alone, combats effects and not 
causes, so that as soon as the treatment 


246 


Brain Culture Through 


ceases, the fat returns as rapidly as possible. 
We must know the cause in each case, and 
the radical key to the cure, will lie in treat¬ 
ing the cause, instead of the effect. Sur¬ 
geons have observed how profoundly the 
effects of wounds depend upon what is called 
the morale of the individual, and it depends 
largely upon this very morale of the indi¬ 
vidual also, as to how quickly, the fat will 
vanish. I must say from a very wide range 
of experience, that it is not true that the fat 
people are very heavy eaters. 

To be sure, very many of them are, while 
many owe their fat to sedentary lives, and 
overfeeding. There are large numbers of 
heavy eaters who do not grow fat. It is 
well known that many infectious diseases, 
such as typhoid, grippe, pneumonia, etc., may 
lead to morbid increase of flesh and obesity, 
and that this obesity is the result of internal 
auto-intoxication, which upsets the func¬ 
tions of assimilation and disassimilation, as 
regulated by the nervous system. 

On the other hand, I find that many ex- 


Scientific Body Building 


247 


treme cases of obesity are due to nervous 
troubles. Fat people are generally neuras¬ 
thenic, irritable, and very impatient. They 
eat rapidly, do not masticate their food, and 
that is one of the frequent causes of obesity. 
Therefore, treatment should always deal 
with the cause. It is always most illuminat¬ 
ing to let the candidate for slimness talk 
with you in regard to the obesity, in that 
way you get a splendid idea of the morals 
of the individual, and as no persons are al¬ 
lowed to take these specific movements 
for obesity, until preliminary exercises are 
thoroughly understood, the first effort is to 
prevent the muscular atrophy, which always 
accompanies the infiltration of fat in the 
various muscles of the body. An inactive 
muscle usually becomes infiltrated with fat, 
this causes atrophy. In order to get at the 
seat of the trouble, there should be progres¬ 
sive physical training, for the ordinary ex¬ 
ercises, usually prescribed, are valueless. 

The exercises for obesity are a sort of 
scale, one note blending into the next, and 


248 


Brain Culture Through 


so leading up into a progressive muscular 
training of the body. The first are exercises 
for correct poise, and always deep breathing. 
This will make the fatty masses on the ab¬ 
domen disappear, as well as that on the hips 
and neck, and make the skin firm, increase 
the organic combustion, eliminate autoin¬ 
toxication, and reestablish permanently, the 
symmetrical development of the muscular 
masses. Then we lead up to the difficult 
posture movements, and prescription move¬ 
ments, which correct all circulatory troubles 
increase the heart power, aid kidneys and 
liver, help digestive functions, and bring 
about a normal bodily condition. 

The Hindoos are most particular about 
posture. So carefully have they studied the 
effect of positions of the body upon the 
muscles and nerves, and breathing, and so 
forth, that they are able to take a person 
who is depressed, and put him in such a 
position, that he cannot possibly feel de¬ 
pressed. 

Quite apart from this, the right position 


Scientific Body Building 


249 


of the body, which is as a rule with chin in, 
chest forward, small of the back slightly 
hollowed, and feet balanced rather upon 
their balls, make an enormous difference to 
every function of the body. Then there is 
the regulation of the breathing. While you 
perform some movements, let us say of 
lateral extension of the arms, you should 
keep your breathing, as deep and full, and 
rhythmical as possible. To let your breath¬ 
ing be held, or become jerky, because you 
are doing a rather difficult movement, is to 
lose much of the value of that movement, 
but there is a third, still more important 
matter, in addition to the maintenance of 
the proper position of the body, and the 
keeping of the correct breathing; it is, the 
relaxing of the muscles. Scarcely any teach¬ 
ers of physical culture insist that their 
pupils shall learn, not to use the muscles, 
which they would gain nothing by using. 
In ordinary economy, it is of the very es¬ 
sence of the art, not to use the money which 
one would gain nothing by using. 


250 


Brain Culture Through 


I call my method the “Mentalization of 
the Body,” as most fully expressing its 
purpose. If these exercises are strictly 
adhered to, a normal condition is absolutely 
assured in from three months to a year. 
One should not lose more than six to eight 
pounds per month, and as the average re¬ 
duction desired is usually from thirty to 
seventy pounds, it is not difficult to calcu¬ 
late the duration of the cure. It is not 
wise to empty the tissues beneath the skin 
too rapidly, for the skin will then become 
flaccid. The exercises will produce a grad¬ 
ual loss. They are relatively easy and take 
but a small part of one’s time or energy. 

Most fat persons are muscularly weak, 
because they do not use their muscles, which 
have become atrophied, and at the same 
time, the neuro-muscular tonicity has been 
lessened on account of the condition of 
autointoxication. At the same time, the 
autointoxication must not be increased 
by the discharge of too much poison into 
the blood, by overexercise. Every day the 


Scientific Body Building 


251 


fat person should exercise for not more than 
fifteen minutes, then the length of time 
should be gradually increased to forty-five 
minutes. These exercises, at first, must be 
taken slowly, then regularly; the greatest 
improvement will be noticed at first in the 
heart action; it undergoes a change in size 
and structure, its muscular fibres become 
large, and the whole tissues become firmer 
and denser, it frees itself from the fat that 
oppresses it, and diminishes the elasticity 
of its fibres. For a vigorous heart drives 
the blood more energetically and makes it 
traverse the capillaries without difficulty. 

While we are upon the subject of obesity, 
it is very necessary to speak of diet. Diet 
might almost be called an unexplored 
science. There is a deep practical implica¬ 
tion in the following story. Kean the actor 
always suited his diet to his part. When he 
played the lover, he ate mutton, when he 
played the murderer, he ate beef, and very 
underdone pork for tyrants. 

Science has revealed the fact that the 


252 


Brain Culture Through 


brain is the most sensitive of all the organs 
to the poison of imperfectly digested food. 
Scientific folk have shown that the quality 
not only of a nation’s muscle, but of its 
mind, is dependent on what it eats, that a 
nation’s food has a whole lot to do with the 
nation’s civilization. We know all this so 
well that we never think anything about it. 
We know that a carefully studied, carefully 
prepared, balanced ration increases our 
mental and physical output, in just the pro¬ 
portion that it is carefully studied and pre¬ 
pared. We know that a puppy or a colt 
can be stunted by under, or poor feeding, or 
brought to fine size by proper feeding; we 
know by this analogy that poor food makes 
a poor man. 

If we approach the food problem from the 
same basis, that we ought to approach any 
other vital problem of life, that is, from the 
scientific basis we will find it a life study. 

To feed humanity properly demands a 
special knowledge of sciences of which 
chemistry and physiology are a mere part. 


Scientific Body Building 


253 


It is a well known fact, that the average 
wife is utterly void of special knowledge of 
food science. Perhaps this ignorance is not 
her fault, she may have been kept out of the 
kitchen as beneath her notice, as so many 
of our American girls are, and she of course 
expects to carry on her profession of human 
and home-making by intuition or the cook 
book. One thing she certainly has not, 
this average woman, and that is any special 
training, for the highest, loveliest, and the 
most sacred.of the arts, Motherhood. She 
is the victim of the world old superstition 
that this wonderful knowledge comes in¬ 
stinctively to Mothers, as a sort of post¬ 
graduate divine anointment, whereas of 
course the pitiful truth is that no other re¬ 
sponsibility in the world is so frequently, 
so tragically bungled. 

The main reasons for obesity may be 
divided into two classes; the predisposing 
causes, and the exciting causes. Let us for 
a brief moment consider them in turn. 

The first or predisposing cause of obesity 


254 


Brain Culture Through 


is undoubtedly hereditary. In a record of 
four hundred and fifty cases of corpulence, 
it was found that sixty per cent inherited 
the tendency from parents or grandparents. 
Also there are many interesting cases to 
show that obesity may skip a generation 
before manifesting itself. Still a study of 
the subject reveals the fact that heredity 
cannot be credited with more than about 
half the cases of obesity. Another factor 
is that of age. We take it for granted that 
the cases of obesity which are due to hered¬ 
ity can invariably be recognized as ab¬ 
normal in early life, and then such measures 
adopted, and such precautions in diet and 
exercise observed, as to minimize the tend¬ 
ency. 

In the non-heredity cases, the tendency to 
take on flesh is usually observed at or about 
middle life. Observation of a large number 
of cases would incline me to place the usual 
ages at from forty to fifty for men, and from 
thirty-five to fifty for women. In middle 
life the capacity and inclination for vigorous 


Scientific Body Building 


255 


muscular exercise are lessened, and the 
need for the ordinary intake of nourishment 
diminished. But as a rule, the habits of 
eating and drinking have by this time be¬ 
come thoroughly fixed, and the usual quan¬ 
tities of food and drink are consumed, so 
that this surplus is often stored in the sys¬ 
tem as fat, and so the tendency to obesity 
starts. This is clear from the following il¬ 
lustration. Suppose we fill a stove up with 
coal day after day, without removing the 
ashes and clinkers; we may put them down 
and stir them around in the stove, and go 
on having some sort of a fire for quite a while 
but eventually the stove becomes filled and 
it is impossible to get in any more coal, until 
it has been cleaned out. This is because the 
sides of the stove have no elasticity, but in 
the body when we do practically the same 
thing with food, instead of coal, we find that 
the skin is elastic, particularly around the 
chest, abdomen, hips, limbs and so forth. 
It can be stretched and puffed out to hold 
a whole lot of the fat, which corresponds 


256 


Brain Culture Through 


to the ashes and clinkers in the stove. 

The answer to “Why do people get too 
fat?” may be briefly said in a few lines. A 
few do because they inherit the tendency. 
A few more because of age or occupation, 
or both, but most people do, because their 
daily diet is not in accordance with the ac¬ 
tual requirement. The food eaten being 
either badly balanced, as to quality, or else 
excessive in quantity. The skin, as one of 
the great ventilators of the body, should at 
all times be kept perfectly clean. I believe 
that nutrition should be taken in modera¬ 
tion and at proper times. If the food is in 
excess, as it is very apt to be, the waste nat¬ 
urally accumulates in the stomach, the intes¬ 
tines, the liver, and the circulation, produc¬ 
ing an injurious effect upon the whole sys¬ 
tem, but especially upon the mind through 
the action of the brain. 

The strongest and most harmonious minds 
can become perverted and entirely changed, 
in their line of reasoning, by derangement of 
natural physical condition. Voltaire said 


Scientific Body Building 


257 


that the massacre of St. Bartholomew was 
due to the incapacity of the king to digest 
his food, but that massacre falls into insig¬ 
nificance when we think of the daily de¬ 
struction of brain cells, as a result of bad 
cooking, wrong diet, and so forth. A study 
of the subject reveals the fact that hered¬ 
ity cannot be credited with more than 
about half the cases of obesity. 

Of all the evils from which humanity suf¬ 
fers as old age creeps on, there is not one 
more common than excess of fat, or one that 
causes greater discomfort, and indirectly 
tends to shorten life. In man this is quite 
apparent between the ages of forty and fifty, 
in woman it is painfully apparent a few 
years earlier. 

While obesity may not be a disease in it¬ 
self, unless it attains enormous proportions, 
it often induces disease by preventing the 
victim from taking the necessary exercise 
that nature demands to stimulate the func¬ 
tions of the different organs that keep the 
body in proper health. After the age of 


258 


Brain Culture Through 


forty, particularly in women, excess of fat 
becomes almost the rule. 

Among the chief determining causes of 
obesity the first is of course excess of food 
and too little work. Though some people 
curiously enough may be very fat and still 
have poor appetites, some seem to get fat 
eat what they will, while others remain thin 
and scrawny on the most luxurious diet. 
Drink also has its influence; fat people 
usually take a large quantity of liquid, and 
in some of its forms, such as sweet wines 
and malt liquors, it is very fattening. 

Deficient muscular exercise by diminish¬ 
ing the amount of wear of tissue (oxidation 
of tissue) favors obesity, and since as a rule 
the stouter the person, the less capable he 
is of taking exercise, these two conditions 
react one upon the other to the advantage 
of fat production. 

All states of the system that prevent the 
proper circulation of the blood, favor obes¬ 
ity by limiting its oxygen power by pre¬ 
venting its conversion into carbonic acid 


Scientific Body Building 


259 


and water and its elimination from the sys¬ 
tem, by the breath. In this way exercise, 
by rapidly circulating the blood through the 
lungs, gets rid of fat from the system. We 
must realize that accumulation of fat is a 
perversion of nutrition which, if once estab¬ 
lished, and with a strong hereditary pre¬ 
disposition, cannot be cured, it follows that 
we should endeavor to prevent as far as 
possible its increase by avoidance of these 
factors which, science tells us, are favorable 
to its development. 

As a convincing illustration of the results 
to be obtained by diet and exercise the case 
of Luigi Carnaro—a Venetian gentleman of 
the 17th century, after a wild youth, which 
destroyed his health, restored himself after 
the age of forty to perfect health by a most 
rigid diet. He had each day a careful al¬ 
lowance of 12 ounces of food, bread, meat, 
and yolk of egg, and 14 ounces of light 
Italian wine. He wrote his book at eighty- 
three, and lived on his hermit fare until 
nearly a hundred years old, and enjoyed ex- 


260 


Brain Culture Through 


cellent health. His wife, who we may pre¬ 
sume fared in the same manner, lived nearly 
as long. 

Obesity creeps on so insidiously and 
slowly, and the individual becomes so en¬ 
tangled in its toils, that he or she finds, 
when it becomes necessary to grapple with 
it, the power to do so curtailed and the effort 
of taking the necessary steps so burdensome 
as to be practically impossible, or too painful 
to continue. 

Indeed it is not necessary to burden one’s 
self with rules in regard to obesity. When 
a person begins to take on flesh it is for one 
or two reasons, or for both reasons. Too 
much is taken into the body, or too little 
eliminated. The obvious thing, then, is to 
take in less and to stimulate the outgo, by 
eating and drinking what will cause more 
perspiration, also the thorough training of 
the Body, along the lines indicated in this 
book, especially the movements for Obesity 
and Balance. 

Of course long walks in the open air are 


Scientific Body Building 


261 


always to be commended, for oxygen burns 
up fat as a furnace flame licks up coal. 
Walk a stated distance each day, be abso¬ 
lutely certain that you know how to walk 
before you begin your long walk; be sure to 
hold the body in perfect poise. 

There are various systems of diet for the 
treatment of obesity. In some cases if the 
usual quantity of food is diminished, no 
special diet is necessary. But remember 
that an ounce or two of food each day, in 
excess of that which is needed, stored in the 
tissue in the form of fat, produce a danger¬ 
ous increase in the weight of the body; in a 
year it would amount to many pounds. It 
is well to remember that too much food, and 
too little exercise, are the principal causes 
of obesity. Fat persons should eat less, 
drink less, sleep less, work harder, and they 
will soon weigh less. 

Fatty degeneration of the heart is often 
caused by eating rich and starchy foods, by 
alcoholic drinks, and by neglect of moderate 
daily exercise, and the heart like the rest of 


262 


Brain Culture Through 


the system, grows weak and flabby for want 
of use. The best medical authorities tell us 
that heart disease would not claim so many 
victims, if it was kept strong by moderate 
exercise. 

Violent exercises that strain the body, or 
of a kind that is short or jerky, will do more 
harm than good, affecting heart and lungs. 
Nervous persons should be made to take all 
their exercises slowly. 

After one has acquired a fine poise and 
carriage of the body, one half an hour a day 
is sufficient exercise to keep one’s self in a 
good physical condition. Exercise perse- 
veringly with this system of muscle culture; 
hold yourself down to a nearly abstemious, 
yet reasonable diet; don’t drink with your 
meals, and above all, keep the brain active 
with some particular line of study. 

If Bismarck could take off seventy pounds 
after he was seventy years old, what is to 
hinder any one from doing the same thing 
after he is forty? 

By following persistently the exercises 


Scientific Body Building 


263 


outlined in this chapter, we will soon be re¬ 
paid by losing at least two pounds a week. 
These exercises will not subject the heart or 
lungs to any undue strain. 





LONG LIFE AS A RESULT OF 
BRAIN WORK 











CHAPTER X 


Long Life as a Result of Brain Work 

The scientific investigation of old age 
shows that senility is nearly always preco¬ 
cious, and that its disabilities and miseries 
are for the most part due to preventable 
causes. 

The human body is composed of billions 
of cells. They are made from the liquids 
we drink, the air we breathe, and the food 
we take into our stomach. These materials 
are then converted by the wonderful proc¬ 
esses of digestion and assimilation into 
cellular life. These cells come into being, 
live their brief lives and then die, and having 
become dead matter, they should be elimi¬ 
nated from the system. If not, they will 
clog up the arterial or piping system of the 
body. Under these conditions, the muscles 
and organs are not properly supplied with 
blood and material for repairs, and conse- 


268 


Brain Culture Through 


quently they will deteriorate and exhibit 
indications of what we know as age. 

But if the arterial and venous system, with 
its vast network of capillaries, can be kept 
clear of such deposits, the walls would re¬ 
main in the elastic condition characteristic 
of youth. The heart would pump the blood 
through those elastic arteries and capillaries 
without difficulty. The muscles and organs 
being properly nourished and supplied with 
materials for repairs, would retain their 
vigor, and the body present the appearance 
of youth, even at an advanced age. 

The ashes of the cells cannot be eliminated 
from the system by any lymph, serum, 
elixir, or any medicinal preparation. The 
process of cleansing these arteries, whether 
the largest artery, or the most microscopic 
capillary, can only be effected through al¬ 
ternate contractions and relaxations of the 
muscles, that being Nature’s method of 
cleansing the body of impurities. It cannot 
be accomplished by any other means. 

Cease muscular activity and you com- 


Scientific Body Building 


269 


mence to die. Saturate the system with 
medicine, stuff yourself with so called health 
foods, diet rigidly, you will not succeed 
unless the dead, clogging matter, the true 
cause of old age, is eliminated. 

The real secret of health, strength and 
elasticity of body and longevity is not only 
muscular activity, but brain activity. Age 
tends to cause the deposit of calcareous 
salts in all the tissues of the body. The 
arteries of old people are hard and deficient 
in elasticity, the fibrous tissues are indu¬ 
rated, the ligaments ossified. 

Exercise of a limb preserves the mobility 
of its joints and opposes the tendency to 
calcareous formation, while if muscles and 
joints have been inactive, they become 
anchylosed, that is, the bones forming the 
joints become ossified together. 

When a muscle is contracted, any wornout 
dead matter which may have deposited at 
that point is forced out into the glandular 
and venous system, whence it is carried off 
by the excretions of the body. When that 


270 


Brain Culture Through 


muscle is relaxed, the action of the heart 
forces a fresh supply of blood and tissue 
building material to that muscle, and with 
it that material power, the vital principle, 
hence growth. 

Any muscle so exercised, that is, alter¬ 
nately contracted and relaxed, increases in 
size, strength and elasticity, and any ad¬ 
jacent gland or organ shares in the improve¬ 
ment. This law applies to all parts of the 
human body. If the entire muscular sys¬ 
tem is systematically cleared of dead cells 
and other clogging material, by this process 
a thorough rejuvenation results. 

These alternate contractions and relaxa¬ 
tions are really a kind of muscle pumping 
exercise. The heart undergoes a change in 
size and structure; its muscular fibres be¬ 
come larger and the whole tissue becomes 
firmer and denser. It frees itself from the 
fat which oppressed it and diminished the 
elasticity of its fibres, for a vigorous heart 
drives the blood more energetically, and 
makes it traverse the capillaries without 


Scientific Body Building 


271 


difficulty. The lungs, the air cells of which 
are brought more into play by a more active 
respiration, expand and push outwards in 
all directions; the osseous walls of their 
prison, the thorax, expands, the ribs are 
raised, and the chest assumes a very char¬ 
acteristic convex shape. It is easy to un¬ 
derstand how respiration must be facilitated 
by this increase in the size of the thorax. 

The exercises for muscular contraction 
and relaxation make degeneration of the 
fibrous tissues impossible. As long as a 
man keeps his muscles at work, he remains 
able to use his limbs, for the persistence of 
function preserves the integrity of the organ. 

I believe that it is possible by adopting 
a daily regimen in line with modern scien¬ 
tific knowledge, to defer the approach of old 
age for many years. Normal bodily exer¬ 
cises are to be encouraged. On the contrary, 
if bodily activities are not pursued, there 
must inevitably follow much more rapid 
retrograde changes in all the tissues. 

In respect to the diet, it is universally ad- 


272 


Brain Culture Through 


mitted that after middle life, the amount of 
food taken should be less than before that 
time, and the changes in diet should be 
rather to use less of the structure-forming 
material, though not always to exclude them. 
In short, the simple rule should be observed, 
of eating no more than perfectly normal ap¬ 
petite craves, and as little as possible of 
those things taken because they are agree¬ 
able. 

As the period of old age is reached, by 
which is meant about seventy years, the 
regimen should be markedly simplified, and 
always taken with the greatest deliberation. 
A good general rule is, that the more nearly 
the diet is reduced to bread, milk and fruit, 
the longer will the person live and enjoy 
good health. The best drink is buttermilk 
which seems to have a salutary effect on the 
action of both the bowels and the kidneys. 
Overmuch yeast bread is objectionable, 
disturbing digestion and encouraging rigid¬ 
ities. 

The care of the skin is of paramount im- 


Scientific Body Building 


273 


portance, and the first desideratum is to 
employ systematic and thorough rubbing 
and brushing of the surface from head to 
heel. The flesh brush or mitten, made of 
coarse toweling, used by the patient for 
half an hour at a time, night and morning, 
serves many admirable ends, and is better 
than too much bathing. The skin of old 
age tends to become harsh, rigid and dry, 
and after this treatment it is well to rub 
into the body a certain amount of some oil. 

The most important specific recommenda¬ 
tions, I wish to offer for the postponement of 
the degenerative effects of age, and for the 
recovery of so much of the normal vigor as 
is possible in each, have to do with the forms 
and qualities of the exercises. 

As has been shown, the tendencies of the 
tissues in advancing age is toward a steady 
and irretrievable hardening or stiffening or 
loss of elasticity, due to normal or abnormal 
increase in the connective tissue. The ef¬ 
fect of this loss of cellular activity is noticed 
first in the impairment of the special senses. 


274 


Brain Culture Through 


Much of the dimness of vision, loss of hear¬ 
ing, and general slowness of brain action, 
common to the aged, can be delayed almost 
indefinitely by the employment of regulated 
movements of the neck and upper truncal 
muscles. Most of the defects of premature 
old age are due to lack of correct diet, suf¬ 
ficient exercise, and an incorrect carriage of 
the body. 

Maintain proper attitudes under all cir¬ 
cumstances. If the neck bones are held 
vertically, the ribs well lifted, and a moder¬ 
ate degree of tension exerted upon the ab¬ 
dominal walls, the viscera will rest upon and 
within the confines of the pelvis, and this 
position should be learned and practiced. 
Nor is it at all difficult if the attention is 
directed that way and some familiarity 
acquired in maintaining the correct position. 
The body cannot be held in normal attitudes 
unless the skeletal muscles are in fairly good 
tone, but most of the effects can be secured 
by a skillful use of the breathing exercises. 

In short, attention to proper attitudes, 


Scientific Body Building 


275 


involving economies in interorganic rela¬ 
tionships, is the one fundamental factor in 
postponing senile changes, and the real de¬ 
fensive measure against old age is to aid 
oxidation of the tissues by all rational means 
including special movements and stimula¬ 
tion of the vasomotor mechanism of the 
great eliminating organs. 

The next important factor is the Culture 
of the Mind. 

The fact that mental activity is conducive 
to longevity, has been dwelt upon by several 
noted alienists. To keep the brain in fine 
condition, one should use it constantly to 
the safe limit of its capacity, just as constant 
use of the muscles and other tissues of the 
body is essential to physical well being. 

In the English rural districts, probably 
one-third of the agricultural laborers who 
survive the age of thirty or thirty-five die 
of paresis. The utter stagnation of agricul¬ 
tural communities in England and in various 
other countries may account in some meas¬ 
ure for the development of paresis in those 


276 


Brain Culture Through 


past middle life, and for insanity among 
women. It is fortunate that in American 
rural districts, at least, the deadly insanity 
to which many of the farmer folk in other 
generations have succumbed, seems now to 
have become obviated by the welcome es¬ 
tablishment in every nook and corner of the 
land, of the library, ten cent magazine, the 
telephone, and the trolley car. 

The brain needs blood to keep it in health, 
and thinking induces the free circulation of 
blood through the brain tissues. A normal 
brain should never be permitted to rest ex¬ 
cept during sleep. Everyone should have 
a subject for study, to which he should de¬ 
vote what would otherwise be his leisure, 
and this not in a casual and dilettante way, 
but earnestly and with much interest. Pro¬ 
fessional men and women should study mu¬ 
sic and art, and should cultivate other in¬ 
tellectual pursuits. 

Gladstone pursued with tremendous suc¬ 
cess, three different lines of study. 

Voltaire turned from literature to science, 


Scientific Body Building 277 

saying that “we must give our souls all the 
forms of expression possible to them.” 

Franklin wrote—“Eat and drink such an 
exact quantity as suits the constitution of 
the body, in reference to the service of the 
mind.” 

Bacon conceived his Novum Organum at 
fifteen, but it was not until the ripe age of 
fifty-nine, that he gave it to the printers. 

Darwin wrote—“As soon as the stimulus 
of mental work stops, my whole strength 
gives away.” 

And so literature teems with sayings from 
the great minds of all ages, placing the em¬ 
phasis on mental as well as physical activity. 

Brain activity is characterized by a great¬ 
er activity of nutritional exchange, and by 
a more abundant elimination of oxidation 
products. Therefore, I feel that brain ac¬ 
tivity is an absolute necessity for longevity. 
The mind need not reach its height of growth 
before seventy years of age, but it usually 
reaches it between twenty and forty. 

Cultivate at least two lines of study, for 


278 


Brain Culture Through 


in one respect at least the man of intellectual 
capacity and pursuits is much better off 
than his brother who works with his hands. 
In the world of manual labor the pitiful 
dictum seems well established, that at forty 
the laborer is a “dead one.” The intel¬ 
lectual man, however, despite the expression 
of a famous physician, maintains the vigor 
of his mind unabated, almost until he is 
ready to step into his grave; and if by this 
means he gains his livelihood, then need he 
not fear the lack of employment or emolu¬ 
ment, even though his years be far advanced. 

What we all need is to lay down for our¬ 
selves severe rules as to the distribution of 
time, social intercourse and so forth. Re¬ 
member that a famous law book was writ¬ 
ten, because a Lord Chancellor chose not 
to be idle the fifteen minutes his wife made 
him wait each day for dinner. We need 
force of purpose and resolution. Many have 
not yet learned to will with that energy of 
fearlessness to which so many difficulties 
yield. Will is the basic principle of all 


Scientific Body Building 


279 


power. We know that exposure, exertion 
and conflict with difficulties do much to 
give tone to the body, and so they do to the 
mind. 

Fight physical inertia with mental energy. 
In this way the superb science of Self Mas¬ 
tery grows until one attains a degree of com¬ 
mand over mind and body which will make 
the pleadings of self-indulgence fall upon 
deaf ears. 

Be careful not to overexercise, as it may 
cause a piling up of poisons which occur 
from a monotonous series of movements, 
involving only a single group of muscles, or 
a single limb, especially if these are carried 
out in a cramped and an unnatural position. 
Such movements, as the incessant use of the 
pen, of certain tools, etc., are far more fa¬ 
tiguing and injurious than generalized, sym¬ 
metrical swaying movements of the whole 
body and limbs, and which involve the ex¬ 
penditure of from two to ten times as much 
actual strength. The reason is, that the 
former fatigues to the torture point one 


280 


Brain Culture Through 


small group of muscles, keeping all the rest 
of the body on a strain to hold this tiny 
group in the right attitude and position, 
while absolutely failing to give any oppor¬ 
tunity for washing out the poisoned lymph 
from the muscles, or for its proper driving 
through the general circulation and lungs 
and liver. 

When muscles are overworked, their ac¬ 
tion becomes tremulous, they waste their 
substances, become rheumatic and degen¬ 
erate into untimely decay. The recent in¬ 
vestigations in Berlin in studying the effects 
of exercise will be of invaluable service to 
the subject of Physical Education. Sport 
laboratories have been established and 
placed under the charge of municipal au¬ 
thorities, and everything that could throw 
light on the influence of sports and gym¬ 
nastic exercises on the human organism, will 
be thoroughly investigated. One of the chief 
objects of the new laboratory will be the 
observation of all that affects school children 
in respect to food and physical exercise. 


Scientific Body Building 281 

This, I feel, is a branch of municipal service 
most sorely needed. 

Do not always be guided by your feelings 
in the matter of exercise, for when one does 
not feel inclined to exercise, is just the time 
he needs it most. Walking on the tiptoes, 
morning and night, while dressing and 
undressing, develops the legs tremendously, 
because of the unconscious swaying of the 
body, which it also causes; it aids in de¬ 
veloping the elasticity of the body. Walking 
on the heels will develop the shin muscles. 

Violent exercises, that strain the body, or 
of a kind like quick, short runs, will do more 
harm than good, affecting heart, lungs and 
groin. Excessive use of muscle weakens 
the brain. Excessive use of the brain 
(without physical exercise) weakens the 
mind. The organ most misused is the one 
through which death begins its work. Take 
great care that brains, lungs, skin, stomach, 
kidneys, bowels and muscles have only 
their own work to do. 

It is hardly necessary to emphasize the 


282 


Brain Culture Through 


necessity for daily baths. Very cold baths 
shock the system and only react in those 
that are robust, hence should only be used 
in emergencies. For general use, the tepid 
bath is best. 

Food is the fuel, and exercise or labor the 
blast that makes it burn. Exercise does 
for the body what intellectual training does 
for the mind, educates and strengthens it. 

I think we all shall agree that the best of 
all blessings is health. Good health, and 
holiness are the same, for holiness really 
means “completeness / 9 It is akin to the 
Saxon word “hal.” The soul needs a per¬ 
fectly sound body, and while it is true that 
a great many of the best thoughts have been 
given to the world by those of feeble body; 
while it is true that invalids have often been 
geniuses, still today I feel that no one can 
be found to dispute the prime necessity of 
perfect health. 

An ancient philosopher once said, the feat 
he performed of keeping his feeble body 
alive at eighty years of age was a greater 


Scientific Body Building 


283 


achievement than even to have written all 
his books, and there really is some truth in 
the old German proverb, “By the age of 
forty, one is a philosopher, an invalid, or a 
fool.” 

The fact that in the history of literature 
a few cases can be pointed out in which 
genius was lodged in a weak or diseased 
body is sometimes adduced in support of the 
false proposition that physical vigor is not 
necessary to professional men. Is it not 
somewhat paradoxical to hear such state¬ 
ments made by a University Professor at 
the recent International Eugenics Congress, 
He cited Kant, Spencer and Isaac Newton 
as examples of famous men who were born 
with infirm bodies, and were doomed to poor 
health, but as proving that this had no re¬ 
lation to their social efficiency or physical 
fitness. In direct refutation of this, let me 
quote Kant’s own words as to how earnestly 
he tried to do away with the disadvantages 
of his small and badly formed body. “On 
account of my flat and narrow chest (he 


284 


Brain Culture Through 


wrote a friend), which affords but little 
room for the movement of my heart and 
lungs, I have a natural predisposition to 
hypochondria, which in earlier years bor¬ 
dered on weariness of life. The oppression 
in my chest remains, for its cause lies in the 
structure of my body, but I have become 
master of its influence on my thoughts.” 

A friend wrote of Kant: 

“He applied his utmost intelligence to the 
task of making his body the obedient in¬ 
strument of his mind, maintaining that one 
should know how to adapt himself to his 
body.” 

Pope was a deformed and helpless invalid, 
yet his mind was brilliant, his energy inex¬ 
haustible, because his will was strong. 

Herbert Spencer also tells of the intel¬ 
lectual stimulus he got from physical ex¬ 
ercise, and when his physician after treating 
him some time for insomnia, advised him to 
consult an oculist, Spencer persuaded him¬ 
self that his trouble was due to his cerebral 
circulation, and he cultivated all indoor, 


Scientific Body Building 


285 


and outdoor games, as safety valves, etc. 

The same writer does not believe in hered¬ 
ity. Let us read the words of St. Paul, 
Chapter No. 7, Verse No. 19, “For the good 
which I would, I do not, but the evil which 
I would not, that I do.” Now if I do 
what I neither approve, nor wish to do, I am 
in no sense doing it, but the indwelling in¬ 
herited tendency to deviation from the 
divine law is the accountable factor in my 
wrongdoing. Assuredly Paul of the Ro¬ 
mans discerned, one might say almost fore¬ 
knew, some of the great problems confront¬ 
ing the minds of modern psychologists today. 
He felt deeply the problem of the duplex 
personality, and questioned the doctrine, 
not of inherited propensity to sin, but of 
inherited responsibility for that sin. Al¬ 
though St. Paul implied in his use of the 
Greek word, an inherited tendency to sin, 
he nowhere intimated that sane adults, 
endowed with powers of examination and 
judgment, are not accountable for their sins. 

St. Paul sought to show men that the 


286 


Brain Culture Through 


sins of the objective self are, at the instiga¬ 
tion of impulses, committed in direct op¬ 
position to the holy instincts of the sub¬ 
jective self, the inward man; and thus was 
St. Paul the first to exhort human beings 
to put the subliminal self in control; the 
superior part of their nature, which delights 
in the law of God, above the carnal part, 
which serves the power of Sin. Such is the 
interpretation psychology would place upon 
the philosophy of St. Paul. 

The longer one lives the more interesting 
and wonderful life becomes, or should be¬ 
come. Youth looks at life in the large, and 
takes it with easy and delightful rapture. 
It is only age that appreciates its infinite 
variety, that understands the significance of 
little things, that catches the clew to the 
“thread of all sustaining beauty” that runs 
through the apparently ugly. As romance 
is the realism of youth, so realism is the 
romance of age. Therefore, have I laid 
stress upon the necessity for exercise, even 
in advanced years, not that length of years 


Scientific Body Building 


287 


is the one significant fact of life, but that 
perfect health is essential so that we may 
be of service while we are here. 

Browning expresses a glorious truth, when 
he puts into the mouth of Rabbi Ben Ezra, 
the saying: 

“Grow old along with me 
The best is yet to be.” 













CONCLUSION 








CHAPTER XI 


Conclusion 

Our generation has won for itself new 
tools, new laws and new liberties. Ours is 
called the scientific age, and it has taught us 
a new idolatry, the worship of the child. It 
has taught us that the bringing up of a 
single child demands the same individual 
attention as the production of a great work 
of art. 

To those whose thoughts go beyond the 
mere surface of life, from its peaks to its 
chasms, the great demand is for the “Rights 
of the Child.” No poet has yet risen to 
paint in soul-searing words the great black 
tragedy of childhood. However, the child 
is beginning to appear in literature as never 
before, and literature is always the unerring 
precursor of great movements. 

The educative agencies must look to the 
care of the physical and emotional and 


292 


Brain Culture Through 


spiritual side, as well as to the intellectual 
side. A few of the great scientists are try¬ 
ing to do in the realm of human life what 
Burbank has done in the realm of plant life. 
According to Mr. Burbank, in order that 
children may grow up and realize, and fill 
out completely and beautifully the out¬ 
lines of the life pattern capsulate in each one 
of their young lives, it is necessary that the 
spiritual forces environing them must be 
recognized. 

He said for a while he had worked with 
the idea that the natural forces were suf¬ 
ficient, but that in pursuance of his studies 
and experiments he had been led to see that 
in order to get the human results out of 
child life, that he was getting by guiding 
the natural forces in the plant life, the spir¬ 
itual life in which every child lives, moves, 
and has its being must be considered and 
utilized. 

A child is not simply an animal, capable 
of being fed and nourished by food which 
builds up the body, but it has a mind 


Scientific Body Building 


293 


which must be called forth by the truth to 
which it is related, and it has a soul 
which must also be put into harmony, for 
it great developmental possibilities. 

As the human voice is the sounding board 
of the soul, I feel that the training of the 
voice in early childhood is of as vital im¬ 
portance as the training of the body. Just 
as the scientific training of the muscles is a 
true, cerebral stimulant, so also does the 
voice stimulate the brain cells into vigorous 
life. Nor do I mean the use of voice, as 
mere voice, for singing does not awaken 
great variety of mental action, but when the 
voice speaks in the registers, qualities, 
timbres, stresses, moods, and exquisite col¬ 
ors that are possible to this God-given 
faculty, the nervous tone and brain force 
and mental vigor are stimulated into life. 

I do not agree fully with the great stress 
placed upon the sensory exercises in child¬ 
hood, for we cannot but realize that the 
average capacity for sensitivity in the nor¬ 
mal child is far in excess of the real demands 


294 


Brain Culture Through 


of life, and I question whether we should re¬ 
gard the sensory capacity as a conditioning 
factor in intelligence. We have only to 
read the prologue to Tennyson’s “Prin¬ 
cess,” to fully comprehend how largely sub¬ 
jective and sensitively imaginative the mind 
of the child is, and that the “Higher proc¬ 
esses” are the ever conditioning factors in a 
normal unfoldment. 

In regarding the biography of one of the 
greatest geniuses of the nineteenth century, 
we learn that when he was a child of four, 
he put his arms about his mother’s neck; his 
fingers coming in contact with the velvet 
gown threw him into spasms of tears. Was 
it this extreme sensitiveness that made of 
him a degenerate at thirty? We can readily 
see how limited is the world which the 
senses report to child or man, but how in¬ 
finite the world which the “higher proc¬ 
esses” awaken. I believe that children 
possess a wonderful inner structure of the 
spirit, which renders them so subjective, 
making of the first seven years of a child’s 


Scientific Body Building 


295 


education the most important of his whole 
life. I believe that in the voice of the 
child we have found a pregnant quarry of 
psychological possibilities, open and ready 
to be worked. Burbank says: “Where 
one can produce one change for the bet¬ 
terment of a plant, one can produce a 
thousand changes for the betterment of 
a child. I have taken the common daisy 
and trained it and cultivated it by proper 
selection and environment, until it has 
been increased in size, beauty, and pro¬ 
ductiveness, at least four hundred fold. 
I have taken the little California poppy, 
and by selecting over and over again the 
qualities I wish to develop, have brought 
forward an orange poppy, a crimson poppy, 
a blue poppy. Is not the child as respon¬ 
sive?” 

In the animal kingdom, and in the veg¬ 
etable world, science points to its triumphs 
in controlling and improving upon Nature. 
Intelligent study and faithful experiment 
have produced not only bigger, better, and 


296 


Brain Culture Through 


more splendid specimens than Nature has 
been able to produce, but many new species 
of animals have been bred, which Nature, 
left to herself, never would have dreamed of. 

The following story entitled, “How Bur¬ 
bank changed the Poppy Field from Yellow 
to Red,” is interesting: 

“One day, so runs the story, the Wizard 
stood looking at a bank of flowers, when the 
golden glory of the California poppies had 
turned the brown mass to a splendid color of 
gorgeous, imposing bloom. His quick eye 
caught sight of one poppy that bore a faint 
strain of red, a narrow pinkish line, drawn in 
a satin chalice of gold. This single poppy 
was jealously guarded. Next season its 
seeds were planted; from them came a brood 
of poppies, some as yellow as their forebears, 
some showing still greater hints of crimson. 
The yellow ones were destroyed, and the 
others retained, and the seeds again planted. 
An increasingly large number of reddish 
ones appeared the next generation. Day 
by day, through the years, as the poppies 


Scientific Body Building 297 

opened to the sunlight, they were challenged 
with the utmost rigor, and none were al¬ 
lowed to live which persisted in wearing 
their yellow coat. At last after years had 
gone by, the test was brought to a success¬ 
ful issue, and in the season of 1904, a new 
floral wonder was produced — a brilliant 
crimson poppy, made from a yellow one, 
the other characteristics, length and shape 
of petal, size of flower, and all its parts left 
undisturbed /’ 

We need in every city a Child Welfare 
bureau, for the protection of the health of 
children, doing as much for the son or the 
daughter of a woman, as the Agricultural 
Department now does for the son or daugh¬ 
ter of a cow, a horse, or a pig, which shall 
conduct a vitally necessary educational 
campaign for all mothers; also a rigid medi¬ 
cal examination of school children. It is a 
sad commentary upon twentieth century 
civilization, that out of the hundreds of 
millions lavished upon prisons, refuges, re¬ 
formatories, asylums, and poorhouses, that 


298 


Brain Culture Through 


a much larger amount could not be had for 
education. 

A lazy, blind government has given more 
attention to the study of the hog than to 
that of the mother or child. One of our sen¬ 
ators, in a recent plea for a national health 
bureau, said: “So far as securing aid from 
the government is concerned, I would rather 
be a fat hog, suffering from cholera, than the 
mother of a large family, in the first stages 
of disease, for if the government was noti¬ 
fied by the owner of the hog, it would hasten 
immediate aid in the form of bottled serum, 
while if the mother needed, and asked aid, 
she would receive none, for there is no Gov¬ 
ernment Bureau to help her.” Also it has 
seemed more important to some high gov¬ 
ernment officials to agitate in favor of an 
increased birth rate, than to urge the pro¬ 
tection of children already born. Has our 
government done anything so very great 
to modify or advance existing legislation 
concerning those already born? What has 
it done for the great problem of Child 


Scientific Body Building 


299 


Labor? And all this in the face of an enor¬ 
mous and admittedly greatly reducible in¬ 
fant mortality, and of the preventable en- 
feeblement of future generations, through 
proper legislation concerning marriage, and 
all this while the government was spending 
millions for the preservation of waterways 
and vast sums for preserving the giant trees 
of California, but practically no scientific 
steps to preserve the giant intellects of the 
American child. 

Millions are spent upon improving the 
breed of domestic animals, studying insects 
and bugs. The government thinks it worth 
while to maintain a department to train 
farmers in the care of hogs, but does not 
consider the subject of training parents to 
properly care for their children, so that it 
would seem that the child, instead of being 
the first care of the government, was des¬ 
tined to be the last—a sort of afterthought. 

The State of New York spends for the 
protection of game, fish and forest, about 
four times more than it does for the entire 


300 


Brain Culture Through 


State Health Department. Also an appall¬ 
ing expenditure for the care of its feeble¬ 
minded degenerate, criminals and insane. 
Does this not seem a spreading of the effect, 
instead of attacking the cause? It is not at 
all an exaggerated statement to say that 
these human misfits are produced by the 
primitive, educational methods which pre¬ 
vail in this country. Children in our large 
cities are required to attend school a cer¬ 
tain number of days for a certain number of 
years, and to pursue certain studies, many 
of which in after years are of a very little 
help; then the children are turned out of 
school, only to become in an alarming num¬ 
ber of cases, social derelicts, even criminals, 
as has been illustrated so tragically in New 
York and Chicago during the last few years. 

We realize that the time is at hand when 
the educative agencies must undertake to 
wipe out this great evil, and to provide for 
the children of this country, especially the 
less fortunate children, something more 
vital than the old time inadequate stereo- 


Scientific Body Building 


301 


typed training. The recent investigations 
into infant mortality show us that about 
one-third of all our infant deaths resulted 
from “Congenital Debility” due principally 
to the ignorance or inability of the mothers, 
and not the poor mothers alone, to take 
proper care of themselves before their 
babies came. Education is all that is need¬ 
ed. The knowledge necessary to keep the 
majority of the three hundred thousand 
children alive, is yours almost for the asking. 

A School for Mothers is no harder to es¬ 
tablish than a kindergarten for children. 
New York has made itself a successful ex¬ 
periment station for the whole country. 
When a profounder culture will have given us 
deeper insight into these things, it will seem 
as natural for society to maintain its mothers 
as it is now natural for it to maintain its 
Army and Navy, the one a governmentally 
supported destructive body, to enter which 
requires the most rigid physical examina¬ 
tion, the other a constructive power, full 
of illimitable possibilities, to which we look 


302 


Brain Culture Through 


for the building up of futurity, but to which 
great body, the government requires no 
entrance examination, and gives no support; 
yet the mothers perform the greatest, high¬ 
est function when they educate the new’ 
generation. This is a force greater than 
armies and navies, a better source of wealth 
than any commercial or political triumphs. 
If this fails, the countries fail; the mothers 
of a nation are that nation’s supreme asset. 

In the education of children we must al¬ 
ways lay especial emphasis on the physical 
side. One is overcome with deep regret in 
looking at a group of children at play, beau¬ 
tifully dressed, but with various signs of 
physical neglect. One feels that the mother 
had wasted time on their elaborate toilets, 
children with pitifully weak ankles and 
round shoulders, others bowlegged, knock- 
kneed, many with incipient spinal curva¬ 
ture, etc. Now what is the most valuable 
thing a child can possess, if it be not health, 
and why so little time and training given to 
their bodies, that are so painfully out of 


Scientific Body Building 


303 


adjustment, when precious bones and mus¬ 
cles are all going askew for the want of 
simple muscular training? Consider the 
awkward habit of toeing in, which so many 
young children have, and which if not cor¬ 
rected, when the limbs are plastic, will be¬ 
come a lifetime defect. There is a toein 
shoe, which orthopedic bootmakers supply, 
and which sometimes can be had at the 
large department stores. This is often ef¬ 
fective, but the mother must admonish the 
child to turn the toes out, or tell him to 
walk with the heels closer together, which 
would likewise bring the feet in a more 
graceful position. 

The splay foot habit is even more dan¬ 
gerous to health, for walking habitually 
with the feet in this position throws all the 
body out of plumb; the correct attitude for 
the feet in walking is an almost straight 
line, from toe to heel, with the toes turned 
out slightly. A shoe designed to correct 
or cure bowlegs in very young children is 
made to throw the weight of the body in 


304 


Brain Culture Through 


such a way as to counteract the tendency of 
the legs to curve outward. 

Any sign of flat foot in a child should at 
once be treated with high boots, made in a 
manner to support the arch of the foot, as 
this defect spoils all the beauty of the foot 
and walk, and in extreme cases it is as bad 
as definite lameness. Flat foot means that 
the arch is breaking down, or has already 
reached that point, and aside from the ugly 
look the condition is extremely painful, and 
the strain tells on the health, and while the 
mechanical and orthopedic aids are neces¬ 
sary at times in acute cases, the primary 
cause is bad posture. Through specific 
exercises such conditions as weak ankles, 
concave chests, rickets, and other serious 
signs in little bodies can easily be cured. 

The balancing exercises described in a 
previous chapter can be given to very 
young children, and in all cases will so 
thoroughly train the lower muscles of the 
body as to prevent any such imperfections. 
Physical education should begin, even be- 


Scientific Body Building 


305 


fore the baby is able to walk, by training the 
various muscles by resistant exercises be¬ 
fore he assumes the difficult standing po¬ 
sition, all tendency to curvature can be 
avoided. One can soon realize the faulty 
deficiency in the physical training of today, 
when according to the opinion of medical 
specialists, nearly every third girl has a 
crooked figure. 

It is indisputaoie, that in spite of the 
growing popularity of the gymnasium, cur¬ 
vature of the spine is becoming more general, 
and the alarming increasing tendency to 
this particular deformity in growing girls 
must be given due attention in our public 
and private schools, colleges and univer¬ 
sities, if we are to save the future race. 

I am seriously opposed to gymnasium 
with apparatus for women. There is no 
value in apparatus. Can you imagine a 
spectacle more pathetic than a class of 
young boys and girls being obliged to go 
through a useless, often an injurious routine 
of exercises, with Indian clubs and dumb- 


306 


Brain Culture Through 


bells, their bodies badly poised, and also 
giving various indications of other physical 
weaknesses, such as splay feet, knock-knees, 
round shoulders, narrow chests, sunken 
loins, crooked ribs, short-winded, curved 
spine, weak back, bowlegs, etc., but all of 
them with a strained expression of eyes, fol¬ 
lowing closely the movements of dumb-bells 
in the teacher’s hands, whose body is very 
often badly poised; however, the teacher 
must not be blamed, she is just a product 
of an outworn method, just as the poor 
defenseless children are. 

A beautiful body is every child’s birth¬ 
right, and if there is a tendency to some 
weakness, or even to some congenital de¬ 
fects, unless it be of an acute kind, scien¬ 
tific body culture can develop a symmet¬ 
rical body. In many cases, if the muscles 
for keeping the spine erect were properly 
developed in the schoolroom, curvature of 
the spine, due to muscular weakness, could 
be avoided. 

Instead of this practical preventive work 


Scientific Body Building 


307 


being made compulsory at schools, girls 
return to their homes to be constantly 
admonished by their parents to hold them¬ 
selves up; when this has failed of the de¬ 
sired effect, and the mother seeks advice 
because one hip is growing out, and one 
shoulder is higher than the other, she is 
told that her daughter will “grow out of it.” 

The first stage of what is hoped to be a 
“growing out of it” leads to the second 
stage, when a clumsy steel jacket or a 
plaster cast is ordered, and so leads to the 
third stage, when the helpless mother real¬ 
izes that instead of “growing out of it,” her 
daughter has grown into such a hopeless 
deformity that no science on earth will help 
her to outgrow. 

Many deviations of the spine, unasso¬ 
ciated with disease, lateral curvature, etc., 
yield within a few months to specific muscle 
culture. By simple exercises daily taken, 
the muscles of the back of the neck can be so 
strengthened that the head will rest grace¬ 
fully and naturally upon the neck, without 


308 


Brain Culture Through 


stiffness. Bending the head back and forth, 
stretching the large, heavy muscles at the 
back of the neck, and strengthening them, 
and twisting the head slowly, resting it first 
on one shoulder, then on the other, are 
invaluable; the head, held erect, helps to 
straighten the spine; it raises the chest to 
that high, self-confident position; the height 
is considerably increased, and the lungs have 
their chance to develop. 

Deep breathing is the most helpful of 
these means. The true method of breath¬ 
ing is so little understood, that many per¬ 
sons who consciously practice deep breath¬ 
ing exercises are remarkable for their flat 
chests and enlarged abdomen. This is al¬ 
ways due to an incorrect posture in breath¬ 
ing. Nature has given us splendid muscles 
for supporting and balancing the figure. 
These lie across the abdomen, and are 
strong and elastic as the stoutest India 
rubber. If abdominal muscles are properly 
strengthened, abdominal enlargement, 
which mars the most promising figure, would 


Scientific Body Building 


309 


never be seen, and elastic belts and certain 
corsets, thought to correct this evil, would 
never be needed. 

Specific exercises for abdominal area: 
These exercises cause contraction of the 
muscles of the abdomen, and lace, so to 
speak, the natural corset, which is formed of 
the strong muscles overlying the abdomen. 

Bending slowly back and forth, from a 
sitting position, is one of the best exercises. 
Sit erect in your chair, then lean forward 
until the face is on a level or between the 
knees, then return to the original position, 
and repeat. The exercise of the imaginary 
lifting of heavy weights is valuable. The 
weight must be imaginary, however, for no 
woman should lift a heavy weight at any 
time, under any circumstances. Place your 
hands beneath a desk or table, and pretend 
to lift it; besides causing the abdomen to be 
straight and flat, these exercises improve 
the complexion, by contracting the muscles 
which press upon the liver, increasing the 
circulation, necessary to its perfect health. 


310 


Brain Culture Through 


When the liver is sluggish, there is a con¬ 
gestion and enlargement of the abdomen. 
Stirring the liver to its right activity re¬ 
lieves this. Indigestion, too, will be relieved 
by these exercises. 

When children leave the stage of baby¬ 
hood, which is at the age of three, they should 
be taught how to stand, walk and breathe 
correctly, especially when there is the least 
disposition on the part of the child to be 
weak, otherwise the shoulders droop, the 
spine curves to one side, the chest sinks in, 
and the great organs are crowded out of 
shape and position. To prevent most of 
the unsightly conditions, that may well be 
termed slight deformities, and which can be 
observed in nine out of every ten children; 
“pigeon” chest, drooping and round shoul¬ 
ders, knock knees, weak ankles, parrot toes, 
crooked backs, etc., physical training of the 
highest and most effective kind must be 
gone through daily, just as faithfully as 
eating, drinking and sleeping, and such ex¬ 
ercises will overcome almost every imperfec- 


Scientific Body Building 


311 


tion which hampers proper body develop¬ 
ment, and will strengthen every tissue and 
muscle in the body. 

These exercises can be made interesting 
and delightful. They must never suggest 
work, as even the youngest child is averse to 
anything that fails to excite and hold his 
attention. Have you ever noticed how in¬ 
stinctively a child’s body sways to the 
rhythm of music? In a room bathed with 
fresh air and sunshine, or better still, out 
of doors, make the children march, then 
run lightly, then have stationary running, 
but the first exercise for each class should be 
the balancing movements. For years, when¬ 
ever the weather permitted, I held my 
classes on the lake shore in a quiet, secluded 
part, and I am certain that each young 
pupil felt her work there the most sacred 
of the day. So much for the little ones just 
emerging from babyhood. 

When the children reach the age of com¬ 
prehension, and can be told the reason for 
things, their physical training may assume 


312 


Brain Culture Through 


larger proportions; they should be taught 
why it is best that every muscle in the body 
should be exercised, and every joint kept 
supple. The important feature of this 
method is that each exercise is designed to 
create expression in the body. Expression 
is the art of all arts, and nobody’s education 
is complete without it. The fine arts are 
all arts of expression, and every exercise 
that the pupils perform is gone through 
with the conviction that we are getting the 
utmost joy and expression out of it, for no 
pupils like to go through exercises in a dull, 
mechanical way. Nothing stimulates a child 
so much as to feel that he is being trained 
to express himself individually. The deep 
breathing exercise stimulates the lungs 
and heart, and sends the blood coursing 
through the tissues. It hurries along the 
circulation, and keeps the body bathed in 
pure, fresh blood. Children who are taught 
this form of expressional training soon de¬ 
velop into strong, graceful young men and 
women. They soon acquire ease and grace 
of movement. 


Scientific Body Building 


313 


Our famous colleges, Smith, Wellesley, 
Vassar and Bryn Mawr should at once 
introduce this system of expressional train¬ 
ing, which should proceed on the simple but 
intelligent plan of first training the weaker 
muscles of each pupil, then developing a 
finely poised body, and next the various 
expressional movements, or exercises, de¬ 
vised to produce a graceful walk and fine 
carriage of the body. Should not the train¬ 
ing in our women's colleges be at least as 
scientific and as thorough as that of West 
Point? In the one case it is the beautiful 
army of womanhood, whose chief function 
from the early dawn of life is the civilization 
of humanity—“The Army of Motherhood" 
for the upbuilding of our race. Is not the 
physical training of this great army even 
more important, for it deals primarily with 
the giving of life, a far more important 
problem than the training of the West 
Pointer for war, or the taking of life? Is it 
a rational system of intellectual progress, 
which brings out a bright intellect in a half 


314 


Brain Culture Through 


developed body, while the parents hope for 
great things in the future, when the body 
has had no training adequate to justify the 
belief that there will be much of any future? 
Is not a crooked body, defective eyes and 
hearing, disagreeable voice, as we so often 
notice in our young college girls, a rather 
dear price to pay for our shallow intellectu¬ 
ality? 

Herbert Spencer says, “On women the 
effects of this forcing system are, if possible, 
even more injurious than on boys, being in a 
great measure debarred from these vigorous 
and enjoyable exercises of the body, by 
which boys mitigate the evils of excessive 
study. Girls feel these evils in their full 
intensity, hence the much smaller portion of 
them grow up well made and healthy. In 
the pale, angular, flat-chested young ladies, 
so abundant in London drawing-rooms, we 
see the effect of merciless application, un¬ 
relieved by youthful sports, and this phys¬ 
ical degeneracy exhibited by them hinders 
their welfare far more than their many ac¬ 
complishments aid it.” 


Scientific Body Building 


315 


A series of careful investigations, covering 
a period of fifteen years, have forced upon 
me the deep conviction that young women 
are often permanently injured in acquiring 
gymnastic skill and hard muscles which se¬ 
riously lessens their capacity for normal 
motherhood. This is due to injurious ath¬ 
letic training. Teachers are put in charge 
of the physical training of young girls, who 
while they may be superior gymnasts them¬ 
selves, possess neither the judgment nor 
the training to estimate a girl's physical 
condition, guarding her carefully, at times, 
and then forcing her, when she is inert or 
indifferent. 

No one set of exercises for all, but indi¬ 
vidual training for the individual; in this 
way only can we avoid muscle lesions, dis¬ 
placed pelvic organs, and strained heart and 
abdominal muscles. The free out-of-door 
life, so invaluable when properly conducted, 
may often lead to years of permanent in¬ 
validism. The training should be progress¬ 
ive, beginning with the simplest breathing, 


316 


Brain Culture Through 


stretching and balancing exercises. Develop 
the weak muscles and build up the body 
until it is symmetrical and well poised. 
The physical training of girls is far more im¬ 
portant than that of boys. 

Thousands of years before the Christian 
Era, the physical education of girls was made 
compulsory, because through them was ob¬ 
tained the continuation of the race. 

Young men go out of school and learn a 
trade, an art or a liberal profession, but most 
of the girls stay at home to learn the highest 
of all arts, “Motherhood,” an art which re¬ 
quires more brains than all the other arts 
and sciences. Therefore, if one sex needs 
more education, better brains and more 
finely developed bodies than the other, it 
is the young woman, because when he is buy¬ 
ing, selling, manufacturing, she is refining 
the souls of her children. 

The genius of Modern Science has given 
us a new view of the body, its functions and 
its needs. It is not enough to enlighten the 
brain; the body also must be educated, and 


Scientific Body Building 


317 


the diffusion of this knowledge is the sheet- 
anchor of civilization. 

Multitudinous signs are present that pro¬ 
claim the approach of another divine day, 
wherein man and nature shall be rejuve¬ 
nated, and civilization will move upward 
as well as onward. The moral tide is ris¬ 
ing, and it will rise more rapidly. 

The dawn is stealing over the eastern 
heights; the crest of the mountains is 
aureoled in a glory that prophesies the com¬ 
ing light; a glow of pink, delicate as the 
throat of a shell, is flushing the sky, and soon 
the rose and purple of the dawn of The New 
Education will flame in splendor on the 
Earth. 


“MEMORY AND THE 
EXECUTIVE MIND” 

By Arthur Raymond Robinson 

The Key to Personal Magnetism and the 
Larger Success 


• WHAT THE LEADING NEWSPAPERS SAY 

“I can say that the author’s ideas are sound and that he ex¬ 
presses them well. His book is a suggestive and practical 
treatise on the cultivation of memory and of executive ability 
on its psychological side.”— The Chicago Record-Herald. 
Edwin L. Shuman, Lit. Ed. 

“An interesting little book packed full of helpful suggestions 
is ‘Memory and the Executive Mind.’ The author holds that 
memory has to be acquired by willing to have it, by repetition 
and perseverance. After stating plain rules for the attainment 
of an executive mind, the author gives the last division of his 
book to a discussion of life’s larger success, which qualifies one 
to take an effective place in the larger life, which ever invites.” 
—The Chicago Evening News. 

“Mr. Robinson starts upon and finished his work with two 
decided advantages over most other writers of memory books 
—that is, if the matter of advantages is to be calculated on 
power to interest the general reader and the structure of de¬ 
fenses against controversial criticism.”— TheflChicago Evening 
Journal. 

“This book consists of 200 odd pages closesly packed with 
good suggestions looking to mental development. It is taste¬ 
fully bound in green cloth with gilt title. The type faces are 
large and very legible. The subjects treated are of unusual 
interest to lawyers and business men.”—American Legal News. 

“Memory and the Executive Mind, by Arthur Raymond 
Robinson, is a helpful, stimulating book by a man who has 
studied psychology—sifting it for ideas that bear practically 
on the conduct of mental life. Knowledge for its own sake 
does not interest Mr. Robinson, the knowledge which his 
mind retains is vital knowledge—knowledge which bears on 
action—and this is the kind oPknowledge his little book is full 
of. We do not hesitate to recommend it. He has watched 
his own mind work and has learned a good many things that 
anyone can use to make one’s own mind work better.”— The 
Chicago Evening Post. George Crain Cook. 

For Sale By 

THE NEW EDUCATION PUBLISHING CO. 

Fine Arts Building - CHICAGO 

Price $1.57, postpaid 




















































































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